On August 22, Zhu Youxiao passed away.
As for the memorial on August 11, Zhu Youxiao was already seriously ill at this time, so how could he pay attention to this matter.
As a minister, I share the emperor's worries. If the emperor is seriously ill and cannot handle it, shouldn't the ministers be able to handle it?
boom!
Chongzhen, who had always looked calm, slapped the memorial on the dragon case and said angrily: "These dog officials only know how to form cliques for personal gain, fight for power and gain, and have no regard for the life and death of the people. Such things are not reported.
What do the governors of Shaanxi do for food, and what are the governors and cabinets of the three sides doing? "
After cursing a few words, Chongzhen slowly calmed down and fell into deep thought.
Why did the civil unrest happen? Because there was not enough to eat.
Why we don't have enough to eat is because the taxes and miscellaneous taxes are too heavy. This is a symptom.
The most fundamental problem is that the people have too little farmland and the output is too little. Most of the farmland is concentrated in the hands of the royal family and gentry.
If the land is not released, even if the court exempts them from all excessive taxes, it will be of no avail.
During this period, Chongzhen read records from the Ministry of Household Affairs. The yield of summer wheat and autumn millet in the north was 2 shi per mu, while the yield of double-cropping rice and wheat fields in the south was 3 shi per mu. Calculated in this way, the average yield per mu was two and a half shi, or about 380 kilograms.
The average person has less than 2 acres of land. If there is a flood, drought, locust plague, etc., it is a luxury to have three porridges a day, not to mention the heavy taxation by the court and the layers of exploitation by the gentry and officials.
To solve the problem of food shortage, we can start from two aspects. First, let the people have more fields. If the production is not enough, then we can make up the number of fields.
If two acres per person is not enough, then three acres, five acres, or even ten acres.
This sounds simple, but it is extremely difficult to implement.
During the more than two hundred years of the Ming Dynasty and the fifteen emperors, only the Hongwu and Wanli years were able to figure out the number of fields in the country, which shows how difficult it is to clear up the number of fields.
When it comes to the interests of the clan, royal family, gentry and landlords, strong military power must be controlled in order to prevent them from rioting.
Dividing fields is currently not possible, but he can introduce high-yielding crops such as potatoes and sweet potatoes.
It is clearly recorded in later history books that potatoes entered the Ming Dynasty during the Wanli Period, while sweet potatoes were introduced to the Ming Dynasty by Chen Zhenlong in 1593.
"Who promoted potatoes?"
Chongzhen frowned and tried hard to recall the information in his mind. After recalling it for a long time, he couldn't remember who promoted Tudou.
"Forget it, let Song Yingxing do it!"
Chongzhen gave up recalling and directly named him.
He originally wanted to wait until he took control of the military and obtained money and land before letting the two of them come, but he didn't expect that he was now forced to let the two of them come in advance.
"Your Majesty, I remember that there is no one named Song Yingxing among the officials in the capital!"
Hearing Wang Chengen's low response, Chongzhen smiled without explaining.
It would be strange if even Wang Chengen had heard of these two people.
These two people may not be very famous in the Ming Dynasty, but they are very famous in later generations.
"Tiangong Kaiwu" compiled by Song Yingxing is known as the encyclopedia of Chinese crafts in the 17th century.
Chen Zhenlong was the first person to introduce sweet potatoes in China. He made an outstanding contribution to alleviate the food and clothing of the Chinese people at that time, and was of great significance in the history of my country's agricultural development.
"Let Li Ruolian come in!"
After a while, Li Ruolian came in.
"Li Ruolian, arrange for two teams to go to Fengxin County, Jiangxi Province to find a man named Song Yingxing. This man should be a civil servant.
In addition, I went to Changle County, Fuzhou Prefecture to find a man named Chen Zhenlong. This man was a scholar, but later abandoned Confucianism and entered business. "
"When you go, please be polite. These two can be used well and can affect the national destiny of the Ming Dynasty. They must be escorted to Beijing safely."
Chongzhen gave emphatically instructions.
This made Wang Chengen, Fang Zhenghua, and Li Ruolian feel as if they were struck by lightning. They had never seen the emperor give such a solemn instruction, and they had not even been treated like this when they went to Zhongzhou to declare Qin Liangyu.
Li Ruolian hesitated for a moment and said: "Your Majesty, it is so important, I want to go there in person to make sure everything is safe."
"No, you have other things to do, let Wang Guoxing and the others go."
Chongzhen refused directly. Whether it was going to Jiangxi or Fuzhou, it was not something that could be done in a short time. It would take at least one and a half to two months to go back and forth.
Moreover, the two of them couldn't get it done even after being here for a while. Water from afar could not quench the thirst of the nearer.
And Qin Liangyu will enter the capital in a month. Once he enters the capital, it will be time to rectify the Jin Yiwei, that is, to inspect the eight major Shanxi merchants.
By confiscating the eight major Shanxi merchants, at least hundreds of thousands of stones of grain can be obtained to alleviate the disaster in Shaanxi. When the time comes, we will buy some rice from Jiangnan, and save money to last until the harvest of sweet potatoes and potatoes.
He was worried about the eight major Shanxi merchants except Li Ruolian.
"Go and make arrangements!"
After Li Ruolian left, Chongzhen's furious heart eased a lot. Now he was waiting for Fang Wen, who was investigating the news, to come back and confirm the specific situation.
After being busy until now, it was already getting late. After finishing the meal, Chongzhen said: "Big companion, wake me up whenever Fang Wen comes back!"
After giving instructions, he fell down and went to sleep.
The next morning, Chongzhen, who was still in a daze, was woken up by Wang Chengen.
A quarter of an hour later, Chongzhen saw the dusty Fang Wen after washing up: "Fang Wen, thank you for your hard work. Please tell me the information you inquired about in detail."
"My companion, please give me a seat!"
"My servant, thank you, Your Majesty!"
After Fang Wen thanked him for his kindness, he said: "Your Majesty, I have searched the territory of Shaanxi and found that there are rebels in Pucheng, Baishui, Jingzhou, Fuping, Chunhua, Sanyuan and other places.
The main reason was that there was a severe drought and there was no harvest. The government imposed various miscellaneous taxes, and the people couldn't bear it, so they rebelled. "
"It's not a rebel, it's a civil uprising, remember!"
Chongzhen couldn't help but interrupt Fang Wen: "Keep talking!"
"Your Majesty, among the sixteen civil uprisings, Baishui was the most serious one. The leader of Baishui's uprising was named Wang Er. He gathered hundreds of people to attack the county seat, killed the magistrate, and then retreated to the north of Luohe River in Baishui. Now they have gathered Nearly six thousand people attended.”
"Among these people, the backbone are rebel soldiers, thieves, post soldiers, and deserters, accounting for about 10%. The rest are all hungry people and refugees."
"Everywhere else, there were hundreds to thousands of people."
At this moment, Chongzhen's expression finally changed. He knew it was serious, but he didn't expect it to have reached this level.
These people totaled nearly 20,000 people. Even if most of them were refugees, 20,000 people were enough for the Guards to drink a pot.
Moreover, can the current combat effectiveness of the guards in the mainland really be able to withstand it?
"Fang Wen, go down and rest first!"
After Fang Wen left, Chongzhen rubbed his temples, then stood up and walked towards the Huangji Palace, with murderous intent in his eyes.
He wanted to see how these courtiers who were still serving as corpses would explain. If they couldn't explain, don't blame him for raising the butcher's knife.
