Chapter 62 Timber and Rice
Whose relationship is closer to His Majesty, then you belong to that person. The power structure of the Ming Dynasty is more like concentric circles than a pyramid. The dot in the middle is the emperor, and the first small circle outside this dot is the bigwigs and ministers of the imperial court. The radiating circle outside is the bureaucrats at all levels. It is only through these people that they come to His Majesty, who is power itself.
Anyone who wants to leapfrog his rank and get close to His Majesty will have only two consequences. The first is to become a new important minister, and the second is to be shattered into pieces.
This truth couldn't be more simple and clear.
According to what He Xi said, Ye Wang's move, regardless of whether it would win the favor of the emperor, would offend a few big bosses first.
But it’s not that He Xi didn’t know. He Xi said these words according to the situation. The same test questions were given to Ye Wang.
After thinking about it, He Xi actually wanted to have a certain influence in the army. This degree is difficult to grasp. After much deliberation, the best way is to recruit Ye Wang on behalf of Zhu Yuanzhang instead of letting Ye Wang join his disciples.
In fact, the two actual situations are the same. But saying it is different.
The former represents He Xi assisting Zhu Yuanzhang in managing some affairs that he cannot take care of, while the latter represents He Xi's political ambitions, in which propriety is very important. Moreover, He Xi felt that he might not be able to hide such small actions from Zhu Yuanzhang.
After all, what kind of person is Zhu Yuanzhang. It's just to express your attitude. However, this statement is first of all Ye Wang's statement, the statement of being a lonely minister.
But He Xi didn't know if Ye Wang could realize this.
If it can, this thing can continue, if not. Then He Xi can only observe it again. After all, although Ye Wang is a strong general, the Ming Dynasty in this year is most in need of strong generals.
That's it, no more words. He Xi said: "I think General Ye has some misunderstandings. I want to know about the native products of Liaodong, not because I want them. It's because Liaodong needs them. The court's strategy has shifted to the northeast. When to attack the north does not depend on the court. When you want to take action depends on how much food is available in Liaodong. Liaodong cannot be self-sufficient in food. The imperial court can only transport 750,000 shi by sea every year, half of which must be transferred to Peking. How much can Liaodong keep? Three hundred thousand shi? Or two One hundred thousand shi. To make up for the gap in Liaodong, by the way, if I remember correctly, Liaodong still needs to transfer grain to Daning? How many thousands of shi can Liaodong have in surplus every year?"
Ye Wang sighed in a low voice and said, "It would be good to have a balance of fifty or sixty thousand stones."
He Xi said: "I won't do anything about the war. We will start from Liaodong and attack the north. When we fight, we need to be lenient to the enemy. How much food is needed? Does General Ye have any confidence?"
Ye Wang said: "One million stones will be used as the base, and there will be no ceiling."
Although what Ye Wang said was a bit exaggerated, it was not too much. Now that Ming Dynasty is launching troops, it is definitely not 35,000. There must be more than hundreds of thousands of them, with cavalry accounting for the majority. Hundreds of thousands of people will eat what horses chew, not to mention too much. Reserve at least half a year. After all, it was normal for a war to last a year and a half, not to mention that Naha was on the grassland, some distance from Liaodong, so civilians had to be recruited to transport grain and grass.
More is needed.
When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty attacked the Xiongnu, how did he halve the household registration in the world? That's it.
After all, Ye Wang has played against Naha several times and knows Naha's strength. He had hundreds of thousands of men under his command, including millions of cattle, sheep, and horses. So much so that Yuan Ting couldn't control it. A prince. Not that easy to deal with.
Of course, in history, when the Ming army approached the city, Naha surrendered, along with hundreds of thousands of his tribesmen and millions of cattle and sheep. His cattle and sheep caused the price of Daming cattle and sheep to plummet.
No more than three months before and after. That much food was not used at all. However, it is said that these millions of cattle and sheep had insufficient fodder, so they had to kill many of them to make dried meat.
However, even if He Xi knew this history, Zhu Yuanzhang also knew it. But they did not regard so-called history as something that was inevitable. Many things happen almost in one thought. Zhu Yuanzhang did not give up thinking of ways to recruit Naha Chu and strive for a better situation than in history. But at the same time, we are also preparing for a situation that is even worse than in history.
Fight a protracted war in the Northeast.
Of course, there was another reason why He Xi worked so hard to prepare food for Liaodong. Naha may be easy to fight. But don't forget, Zhu Yuanzhang wants to fight not only Nahachu, but also the Jurchens, and he will plow the court and sweep the holes, leaving no grass behind.
This also requires food.
In short, there is nothing wrong with collecting grain in Liaodong.
He Xi said; "The main purpose of my visit this time is to strengthen sea transportation. Correctly transport grain to Liaodong. At least one million stones should be stored in Liaodong, or even more. The more, the better. And the official grain transportation is There is a limit. The imperial court cannot increase too many ships. I must find another way."
He Xi said this and looked at Ye Wang.
Ye Wang frowned and seemed to have no reaction. Or maybe he was wondering, what is He Xi's other way to find a solution?
He Xi could only continue by himself, he said: "That is to open up private food transportation."
Ye Wang said: "People transport food? Why do they transport it? Is it a Chinese method?"
Kaizhongfa was the policy of the imperial court to encourage people to transport grain to the frontiers, that is, to transport grains to the frontiers, the border generals would give them salt leads, and then merchants would use the salt leads to sell the salt and sell it back home. In fact, you use salt to buy food.
This is why the salt tax in the Ming Dynasty was not high. Because Kaizhongfa has actually paid the salt tax in advance. Of course, the Ming Dynasty emperors were not as cruel as the Song Dynasty emperors. Except for special circumstances, the price of salt in the Song Dynasty was more than ten times or even more than that in the Ming Dynasty.
Regardless of whether there will be any problems with the future opening method. But the current opening method is still running well. But He Xi still has ideas about opening up China.
The Kaizhong method essentially meant that the court used salt profits to pay for food. And the procedures are cumbersome. Given the government's temper, one more procedure will bring more disadvantages. The best way is to solve it through commercial means.
He Xi said: "In the south of the Yangtze River, a large log thick enough to be used as a beam costs about ten taels. The bigger it is, the more valuable it is. I want to know how much it costs to cut down a large log?"
Ye Wang pondered for a moment and said: "The prince consort may not know that going into the mountains to cut trees is actually very hard work. It starts with selecting the wood, cutting it down, and then dragging it out of the mountain. Even if we don't mention the wild beasts in the mountains, just talking about the toppling of big trees, One careless move could cost someone’s life.”
"Even in the southwest, there is a saying that ten people go into the mountains and five come back."
"Even in Liaodong, it is difficult to get such a big tree out of the mountain."
He Xi said: "Since you know about logging in the southwest, do you know about release? Just cut down giant trees on the edge of the river and put them into the water flow. Then go with the flow and collect them in a flat place downstream. And I surveyed Liaodong Water flow, there are several rivers that can use this method."
"General Ye, do you think it's impossible?"
Ye Wang said: "It's possible, it's possible. Just big trees can allow people to transport food to Liaodong?"
He Xi said: "I want to set a price. A huge tree that can be hugged together only costs one tael of silver, or four stone meters."
Ye Wang was stunned and said, "Sir, this is not good."
In this way, the price of a big tree from Liaodong to Jiangnan is ten times. Moreover, Ye Wang said before that logging in deep mountains is very laborious. For every one or two pieces of wood, Ye Wang had to carefully calculate whether he would lose money.
He Xi said: "Don't worry, it won't always be like this."
When doing things, you always have to make a big deal.
Only crazy profits can stimulate the private sector to trade wood grains. But after this kind of trade reaches a large scale, the pricing power is in the hands of the government. Without them, the entire Liaodong is under military control, and there is no so-called civilian power at all.
What should we use if we don’t use official power?
Don't forget that He Xi started a sailing wave. It is estimated that many nobles are looking for ships at this time. The shipbuilding industry is all building big wood, which is destined to keep the price of big wood rising for a long time. A large piece of wood cost ten taels before, but it will no longer be that price in the future.
Until alternative materials are found, large timber that can be used to build ships is not the most expensive, only more expensive.
