After the Lantern Festival in the ninth year of Ankang, Zhu Jingyuan packed up his things and left Edo to take office in Xi'an, Shaanxi.
This time we are going inland, so we need to take a boat to Suzhou to disembark, and then take a special train to Xi'an.
There is no high-speed rail now. The distance from Suzhou to Xi'an is more than 1,500 kilometers, and it takes a whole day to sit on the train.
However, the royal family's special train only brought Zhu Jingyuan and his family, and the facilities in the carriage were all at the level of top-class guest rooms.
In addition to the unavoidable sound of the train itself, it is equivalent to resting indoors for a whole day.
Zhu Jingyuan slept at night, and during the day he admired the scenery along the way and thought about his future work.
From Suzhou to Xi'an, from the coast to the inland, from the Jiangnan Water Town to the Central Plains, from the Yangtze River Delta to the Loess Plateau, the environment along the way is very different, and the natural landscape can be said to be very rich.
However, Zhu Jingyuan himself paid more attention to the social and humanistic differences in the interior of the Ming Dynasty.
Differences between regions and differences from past life memories.
In this world, after the Ming Dynasty began to develop colonies, the land in the mainland that was not very good was gradually abandoned.
The terraced fields in the southern hilly areas have long since completely degraded into mountain forests.
Only in plain areas that are large enough can there be large-scale farms as far as the eye can see.
From Jiangnan to the Central Plains, there are large farms belonging to the royal family everywhere, which have been rapidly mechanized in the past few years.
A large number of agricultural workers were sent to cities, reducing part of the city's labor gap.
When the train travels through the Great Plains, you can often see large tractors and agricultural aircraft spreading pesticides.
And occasionally, we can see small civilian aircraft flying in the sky that seem to be used for fun or training.
The small farmer economy here has completely disappeared, and even in the mainland, only large farms operated by companies are left.
This is the biggest difference between the Ming Dynasty in this world and the country where Zhu Jingyuan lived in his previous life.
After Zhu Jingyuan regained his memory, every time he thought about this incident, he felt like his scalp was numb.
Although the production method of self-cultivating farmers is considered to be absolutely backward production capacity in the industrial era.
But among traditional Eastern dynasties, it is an important foundation for the stable existence of the dynasty.
According to the sociological theories of later generations that I have studied, the nature of the yeoman farmers is "petty bourgeoisie".
Because they own land, a key means of production, and most of them also have various agricultural tools that they have purchased themselves, which are also typical means of production.
On the contrary, the managers and shopkeepers within the factory, as long as they have not obtained shares in the factory where they work, no matter how decent and sophisticated their lives are, they are proletarian in nature.
Because they do not have access to the means of production, they are completely dependent on the wages paid by their employers.
The largest real petty bourgeois group is the yeoman farmers.
Once the land is completely annexed, all landowners will become "long-term workers" and become proletarian in nature.
Homeowner farmers are a very stable part of society, while long-term workers are obviously very unstable.
After Zhu Jingyuan confirmed the situation of the Ming Dynasty, the first thing he thought of was the countries in Nanyinzhou in his previous life.
After independence in these countries, the original plantation economy remained basically unchanged, and the land was in the hands of farmers.
After the start of the second industrial revolution, a large number of agricultural workers lost their original jobs and had to go to cities to look for opportunities. Therefore, these countries quickly completed "urbanization."
But if these people cannot find jobs in the cities, then the entire country will be in an extremely unstable state.
The industries in many countries in Nanyinzhou cannot develop, and the country does not have land to distribute to workers who cannot find jobs. They can only let these people live in urban slums in a state of waiting for relief.
The United States and European countries have similar situations, but the size of the slums is slightly different.
Slums in typical European and American societies are gathering places for people who have no land and cannot work as workers.
There is no such concept in the countries surrounding China, because most of the countries in China have completed land reform, and workers who cannot find jobs will return to the countryside to become farmers.
Zhu Jingyuan once discussed specifically with Zhu Zhongliang after his retirement and expressed his concerns in this regard.
After all, according to my personal experience, the prerequisite for developing industry and commerce is to first allocate land.
This is to provide a stable social foundation for industrialization.
From the Meiji Restoration in Japan to the Miracle on the Han River in South Korea, even bald people had to engage in land reform after running away.
Zhu Zhongliang's answer at that time was that the current industrial development of the Ming Dynasty could absorb the excess agricultural population.
If there is a large-scale economic or political crisis, and a critical situation arises that neither the royal family nor the court can cope with and control, the emperor can choose to divide the land among the unemployed and homeless.
Then Zhu Jingyuan suddenly realized that the Ming Dynasty in this world completed industrialization spontaneously, rather than entering the industrial age as a pursuer like China and neighboring countries in the previous life.
If land annexation, industry, and urbanization are completed simultaneously and spontaneously, the result will indeed be the current state of the Ming Dynasty. This was also the case in the early industrial countries such as Germany, Britain, and France in history.
However, there is a huge difference between the Ming Dynasty and them. The land of the Ming Dynasty was indeed completely annexed, but more than half of it was annexed to the royal family. The emperor could choose to divide the land when necessary.
This is actually an attempt by the royal family to save an extra hand with "foresight".
In Zhu Zhongliang's view, this is another trump card in the hands of the royal family, a trump card that can quickly stabilize the social system in critical moments.
But Zhu Jingyuan was worried, could this field be divided at the emperor's discretion?
Zhu Jingyuan was worried that when it reached that state, such measures might not be able to take effect quickly.
So whether you want to try or not try, problems that can be solved in cities should not be involved in rural areas.
In normal times, we must carefully maintain the balance and development of the entire society and prevent the slightest change.
As the train continued westward and gradually penetrated into the inland areas of Ming Dynasty, the scale of the cities encountered on the road began to shrink significantly.
Zhu Jingyuan also realized again that compared to his previous life, the Ming Dynasty in this world did not pay much attention to the interior of the continent.
After defeating Lucia during the Renwu Dynasty and taking complete control of China and the eastern coastline of Xianbei, he really maintained peace with Lucia for more than a hundred years.
After helping Persia counter the rebellion, it did not find a way to annex Persia and turn it into a vassal state. It also allowed the three countries of Kazakhstan, Khiva, and Persia to retain a high degree of independence.
Compared to Lucia, Ming's desire for inland land seems to be very restrained.
If the Ming Dynasty was a landlocked country, or if its maritime power was very weak, and if the surrounding sea routes were controlled by hostile or uncooperative countries, it would definitely have to turn its attention inland.
No matter how inconvenient the inland is, the resources in the inland must be developed, just like Lucia in later generations.
But in this world, after Emperor Shizu rebuilt the Ming Dynasty, he quickly established a quite powerful maritime force.
Since then, most of the expansion of the Ming Dynasty has been on overseas lands.
After all, the ocean is a natural low-cost transportation platform. It is easier to go from Yingtianfu to Xiyang Cape than to Yili.
In particular, emperors of all dynasties knew where the most important resources in the world were.
The massive iron ore that may be needed after industrialization is in Tiannan, and the massive oil that future industry will need is in the food country.
Gold mines and other precious metals that ensure currency stability are mainly located in Yinzhou and Mozhou. Copper mines, which are used to make low-grade auxiliary coins and are also important industrial raw materials, are also mainly located in Yinzhou.
Moreover, these resource origins are not too far from the coastline.
After the popularity of steam sailing ships, it was much easier to transport these overseas resources back to the country than from Western Xianbei to the southeast coast.
Liaodong region can provide the coal and iron ore needed to start the first industrial revolution.
Shaanxi, Shanxi and other places also have very rich coal mines.
The Ming Dynasty's purpose of controlling the inland territory west of Shaanxi and retaining the three independent khanates in Anxi was mainly based on geostrategic considerations.
He must control all the commanding heights of the entire Shenou continent in his own hands, as well as all the mountains, rivers and plateaus surrounding the core area of the mainland.
Of course, the Ming court would not deliberately suppress the inland land it already controlled.
It’s just that I didn’t put too much energy into construction.
Without the special care of the imperial court, and without special resources in the interior, the speed of normal industrial and commercial development would definitely not be as fast as that of coastal areas with convenient transportation.
Therefore, after arriving in the Great Plains of the Central Plains, it is rare to see large-scale cities.
The scenes in some places even made Zhu Jingyuan feel as if he had regressed from an industrial society to an agricultural society.
However, it is also understandable that the current industrial level of Ming Dynasty, the most high-end part has already reached the Cold War era.
But these aspects were forcibly brought up by Zhu Jingyuan relying on the experience of later generations.
Before Zhu Jingyuan intervened, and where Zhu Jingyuan did not directly intervene, the industrial base for the natural development of Ming Dynasty had actually just begun the second industrial revolution.
Therefore, the places on the southeastern coast that focus on building high-tech industries now seem to have surpassed the World War II era.
Cars are everywhere, you can travel on large passenger planes, there are even private jet competitions, and wealthy families already have access to washing machines, refrigerators, and air conditioners.
However, in inland areas where development is relatively slow, internal combustion engines and electricity have not yet become popular.
Cars are rarely seen in cities, electric lights have not yet been used in rural areas, and horse-drawn carriages and bicycles still account for a very large proportion.
When Zhu Jingyuan came to the Central Plains from Jiangnan, he felt as if he had returned to Shanghai from New York during World War II.
Zhu Jingyuan stood by the window of his room, looking at the city and rural scenes outside the window and sighing:
"During the prince's political training, he should really visit more different places, at least go to the interior.
"If you stay in the east and stay in the capital city all your life, you may misjudge the situation of the Ming Dynasty..."
To Zhu Jingyuan's side, Wang Ya, the Princess of Dashi, nodded with a smile and said:
"Of course what His Highness said makes sense. It is better to travel thousands of miles than to read thousands of books. If you don't experience it yourself, you won't know how big the Ming Dynasty is.
"However, I feel that the Ming Dynasty is too big, so it cannot be completely balanced.
“There are bound to be some places that are richer and some places that are poorer.
"We can't abandon those poor places."
Zhu Jingyuan's palace has formed a routine to select two new concubines for the prince every time he goes to a training place.
But Zhu Jingyuan never had the chance to find a woman who seemed to want him to be his queen.
At the same time, among the concubines he already had, Zhu Jingyuan still felt that Wang Ya was the most suitable for him.
So now Wang Ya has been named the Princess of Dashi.
A vassal king like Zhu Jingyuan who is close to the vassal can have one queen and four princesses.
Although the position of queen is still vacant, Zhu Jingyuan feels that he may never choose a queen.
Wang Ya, the princess, became the natural head of Zhu Jingyuan's harem.
Although Wang Ya was not the first to follow Zhu Jingyuan, Liu Muyun and Yu Muxue, who were older, not only did not have strong personalities at all, but even seemed more immature than Wang Ya.
After all, their life experiences are too different. Wang Ya, an orphan without a father or mother, is much more precocious in character than Liu Muyun, a college student with full parents and siblings.
Zhu Jingyuan nodded slightly after hearing Wang Ya's words, and at the same time also confirmed some issues again.
Neither the Ming emperor nor the court paid much attention to the balance of regional development. This may also be the impact of spontaneous industrialization.
This may be problematic in the future.
"Of course we cannot abandon poor areas. Instead, we should find ways to mobilize the power of wealthy areas to help relatively poor areas improve their industry and living standards..."
While Zhu Jingyuan and Wang Ya were chatting, the train whistle continued to sound again.
Zhu Jingyuan knew that this was close to certain stations or cities.
As expected, An Xiaona, who was following next to her, took two steps forward and explained the situation to Zhu Jingyuan:
"Your Highness, the next stop is Pingdingshan, Henan. It is a relatively large city in the Central Plains. If you want to get off the train and have a look, you can notify the train to stop, otherwise the train will pass through the city normally..."
Pingdingshan is also a place in this world where mines first appeared and then cities developed.
It is now also a very important coal mine and related industrial base.
Zhu Jingyuan thought for a while and finally shook his head:
"It's better not to stay. I didn't come to Henan to take office..."
The train moved forward, and when it actually entered the Pingdingshan mining area and urban area, Zhu Jingyuan was shocked again by the sight before him.
It is already evening now, and the street lights in urban areas and mining areas are on.
Shrouded in gray fog and illuminated by dense and bright lights, the outline of this industrial-era city slowly unfolded.
Looking at the lights of the city in front of him, Zhu Jingyuan finally felt like he had returned to the industrial society again.
Moreover, this flat-top mountain city gave Zhu Jingyuan the impression that it was very developed as a whole.
Double-track high-standard railway, tall and complicated pavilions, brightly lit streets, and endless traffic.
I had passed through cities and rural areas that looked like those from the agricultural era, and it seemed like they were in a different world from the busy and lively industrial city in front of me.
Zhu Jingyuan looked at the scene in front of him and thought again of the problem he had just realized.
In the absence of rigid regulation, in an era of rapid industrialization expansion, resource cities can be very wealthy.
The current size of a mining city like Pingdingshan is not small at all compared to cities in the southeast.
It's just that in this kind of city, compared with places without minerals around, the gap is particularly obvious.
(End of chapter)
