It is certain that it will cause controversy, but it is not certain that it will cause an uproar.
This is what Su Yonglin thought about.
Firstly, the area of returning farmland to forest is limited, and secondly, with the power that he has, there is no problem in forcibly advancing this policy.
As for the so-called uproar, it was probably an exaggerated rhetorical technique used by Confucian officials to admonish the emperor.
For example, if the emperor builds a palace, the people's livelihood will be ruined...
Su Yonglin was very unhappy with this rhetorical technique.
"What's the uproar?"
Su Yonglin shook his head and said: "If the vegetation on both sides of the Yellow River in Guanzhong cannot be restored, the soil in Guanzhong will continue to be brought to Henan, Hebei, and Shandong, and the river beds in various places will continue to be raised, and the rivers above the ground will become higher and higher!
The higher the river bed, the more river flooding and breaches will occur. Production along the banks will continue to be destroyed, food harvests will continue to fail, and people will continue to die. Chen Shilang, let me ask you, is it the return of farmland to forest that is more terrible, or the Yellow River breach? horrible? "
Su Yonglin put two options in front of Chen Jichang. Chen Jichang thought for a while and really didn't know how to choose. He just felt that both options were scary.
One will directly kill people, and the other may cause social unrest.
"Your Majesty, I am afraid that neither of these things the people want to see. The Yellow River bursting is certainly scary, but losing the land for cultivation will make the people panic."
That was all he could say.
Su Yonglin still shook his head.
"The return of farmland to forests is limited. If it involves people's farmland, it can be compensated elsewhere. The state controls public land. At that time, the amount of farmland returned will be compensated. The court can even provide money and land to move the people of Guanzhong to A vast and sparsely populated land.”
Su Yonglin announced his compensation policy.
There will be no coercion, and you will make the best of the situation. As long as you are willing to return farmland to forests, Ming Dynasty will never let you suffer.
After several years of war and agrarian revolution, Su Yonglin had a large amount of idle land and was now actively promoting the construction and land distribution of new rural areas.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, if we can move part of the residents of Guanzhong out of Guanzhong, it would be a feasible strategy to restore the fragile ecosystem of Guanzhong.
Chen Jichang knew the inside story and how much good-quality land the imperial court controlled, so he was silent for a while.
"Your Majesty, although the court can allocate land and money, as the saying goes, it is difficult to leave the homeland. The people are nostalgic and unwilling to leave their hometown. The sudden move of the people may not be what the people want. By then, without force, I am afraid there will not be many people. People are willing to leave, but if they are forced to leave, it will inevitably lead to boiling public dissatisfaction."
"I know, I know everything."
Su Yonglin sighed and said: "So we need to study in advance what to do and how to persuade more people in Guanzhong to leave. Everyone, I know it is difficult to do this, but I hope you understand.
We need to have a concept that the food that can be grown on a piece of land is limited, so the number of people that can be fed is also limited. In some places, forests can be cleared to open up wasteland, but in other places, not.
Guanzhong is no longer the land of abundance it once was. It can no longer support too many people. If it continues, the soil in Guanzhong will become increasingly poor and the food output will become lower and lower. We will destroy Guanzhong and the Central Plains alive and leave a legacy of disaster. We will all be reviled by future generations in the history books. "
Destroyed Guanzhong and the Central Plains, caused disaster to future generations, and was reviled by future generations.
This statement is too heavy.
Only a very small number of officials, such as Ditian Guizi, who had been following Su Yonglin, had such a concept and knew the impact of soil erosion and ecological environment damage on agricultural production.
Most people still have no concept of environmental protection and soil erosion, and their understanding of this aspect is not even as much as that of the Qin people. Even those who know something are still in a state of knowing what is happening and not knowing why.
Therefore, Su Yonglin planned to teach court officials after this incident, open an environmental protection course that all officials should participate in, and formally introduce concepts related to environmental protection and agricultural production.
Today, soil erosion in Guanzhong and land salinization in the Central Plains are no longer trivial matters, and the ecological environment in the Guanzhong area is far worse than it was back then.
A thousand years ago, no one paid attention to environmental protection and cultivated the land roughly. So a thousand years later, they will have to pay for the inaction of their predecessors.
If they don't pay attention now and continue to cultivate the land roughly, then future generations a thousand years from now will have to pay for their inaction a thousand years ago.
"What I mean is that no matter how great the difficulty is, it must be pushed forward. As a national policy, it can be implemented slowly, but it must be implemented, even if it takes a long time. People have no long-term worries, and they must worry about the near future. If you don't consider the future now, once the Yellow River floods , the country is thousands of miles away, wouldn’t it be hundreds of times more difficult to provide relief? Everyone, what do you think?”
Su Yonglin looked around at the ministers.
The ministers did not yet know what the connection was between environmental protection and the Yellow River bursting, but many of them had heard or seen the tragic situation after the Yellow River overflowed, so they nodded involuntarily.
They feel that converting farmland into forests may sound unpleasant, but it is still better than the real Yellow River bursting.
If the Yellow River bursts, many people will die, and the impact will be very wide. It will have a very heavy blow to the national economy. If they do not support the emperor's approach, once the Yellow River bursts, they can imagine how angry the emperor will be.
If the method mentioned by the emperor can really consolidate the soil, it will definitely reduce the floods of the Yellow River. Even if it cannot, it is the emperor's own fault. He must be embarrassed to be angry, and the officials will be safe.
With this thought, the ministers had no idea of resistance, so at Su Yonglin's insistence, the policy of returning farmland to forest was adopted by the court as a national policy.
The imperial court will begin to plan the implementation of this strategy, send people to conduct on-site inspections to determine the strategy, think about the method of doing things with the least loss, and strive to avoid too strong resentment among the locals.
The policy of returning farmland to forests was adopted by the court as a fundamental solution and was ready to be implemented. However, it takes a long time to cure the root cause and is slow to produce results. During this period, this "standard" cannot be left alone.
The above-ground rivers in Kaifeng and the Yellow River after diversion all need to be dealt with.
Therefore, a lot of manpower and material resources and a certain amount of time must still be spent in this regard to strive to return the Yellow River to its old path of the Eastern Han Dynasty, so as not to trouble the people of the Huaihe River and the Huaihe River again.
For this reason, Su Yonglin asked water conservancy experts to jointly formulate measures to change the Yellow River back to its original course. No matter how difficult it was, no matter how much it cost, no matter how much manpower and material resources were needed, he would do it.
For the lives of the Central Plains and for the people of the world, he will do whatever it takes.
At this time, someone pointed out at the meeting that the Huaihe River Basin was not entirely under the rule of the Ming Dynasty. The Song Dynasty in the south controlled the land in Huainan. If only the Ming Dynasty regulated the Yellow River, wouldn't it mean that the Southern Song Dynasty would reap the benefits?
Although it is imperative to regulate the Yellow River, and the Central Plains will be restored to its vitality, if the Southern Song Dynasty can also benefit, should we negotiate with the Southern Song Dynasty and let the Southern Song Dynasty also contribute some money to regulate the Yellow River?
The person who made this suggestion was none other than Lin Jingchun, Minister of Finance.
After Lin Jingchun, who was good at finance, took office as Minister of Finance, he put the Ming Dynasty's finances in order. However, because Su Yonglin had too many things to do, he was not unaware of how tight the Ming Dynasty's finances were.
As for how much it would cost to manage the Yellow River, Lin Jingchun thought about it for a while, and felt that his heartbeat was a little fast, his blood pressure was a little high, and he felt like he wouldn't be able to sleep well at night.
He began to rack his brains to think about how to save money. As he thought about it, he suddenly thought of the Southern Song Dynasty.
If the Ming Dynasty had used all its efforts to regulate the Yellow River, the Central Plains would have been safe, the Huaihe River would have been safe, and the Southern Song Dynasty would have been safe as well. Therefore, in terms of managing the Yellow River, he might have been able to reap the benefits of the Southern Song Dynasty. Very dissatisfied with the matter.
"It was the Song people who changed the course of the Yellow River in the first place. They attacked the Yellow River many times and failed to regulate the river. Not only that, but Duchong, who was left behind in Tokyo, also dug up river banks, making the lower reaches of the Yellow River a swamp and causing a loss of life. This responsibility is From the Song Dynasty!"
Lin Jingchun gritted his teeth and said: "If the Song people are not allowed to pay for this, the Ming Dynasty will suffer a big loss. Your Majesty, I believe that we must ask the Song people for some money, and we cannot let them continue to be so shameless."
