As the first-year pioneers returned to their hometowns after the autumn harvest, there was a sensation throughout northern China. The imperial court soon received memorials from various places, informing the poor and untouchable people in the north that they were eager to immigrate to the Northeast, and reminded the state capitals and land enclosures in the places where they were promoted to make preparations.
The cabinet has increased the number of immigrants registered with local governments before the end of the year, and it is likely to surge to 100,000. This expenditure on rations, cattle, and farm tools is a large amount.
Lu Tiaoyang, who was responsible for grasping the general manager, did not dare to neglect and quickly arranged for various places to purchase a large amount of seeds, cattle, farm tools, etc., and transfer them to the northeast as soon as spring began. In order to prevent many immigrants from having enough to eat in the first year and nearly starving to death in the Northeast from happening again, Lu Tiaoyang became tired and sick, and he did not have a good year this year.
Lu Tiaoyang was tired, and Zhang Juzheng was even more tired. The imperial court had just decided on the "water conservancy management project of the entire basin from the Yellow River to the sea", and Zhang Juzheng became the Prime Minister. Although Wang Guoguang and the six departments can share specific affairs, there are too many places to coordinate to catch the general manager.
In order to save time, Zhu Yijun specially ordered cabinet ministers not to leave the palace but to work overtime in Wenyuan Pavilion. After working like this for more than a month, Zhu Yijun was shocked when he saw that Zhang Juzheng lost weight rapidly and finally lost his shape, like a paper man.
After some hard talk, Zhu Yijun asked Zhang Juzheng to put down his official duties and rest for five days. In addition, the medical school arranged for health doctors to regularly provide medical consultations and diet adjustments to senior officials above the minister's level. ——Arranged two for Zhang Juzheng to supervise his work, rest and diet.
Although the cabinet members were all exhausted, Zhu Yijun, the evil boss, didn't care. After arranging health doctors and rewarding nutritional supplements, he still advanced state affairs at his own pace. At the end of the twelfth lunar month in the third year of Wanli, the Chinese New Year was about to begin, and he heard another report on the water conservancy improvement project to be implemented in the fourth year of Wanli.
During this report, Zhang Juzheng calculated the food needs for Zhu Yijun in the four years of Wanli and expressed concerns about the upcoming major project. Money is not a big problem, but can food sustain itself after such a big disaster in the Huaihe River?
After listening to Zhang Juzheng's report, Zhu Yijun was really a little nervous at first, but after thinking it through, he felt that he should continue.
Since the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has not kept statistics on the country's total grain production for many years, and only extrapolated it from grain taxes, Zhang Juzheng's estimate of grain production is actually very inaccurate. ——At least that part of the data on evading grain taxes is not included in the statistics.
After Zhu Yijun took charge of Jinyiwei, he made a major expansion of Jinyiwei in the second year of Wanli, increased internal division of labor, and established the Statistics Bureau.
There are not many people in this bureau, but they have high quality and ability. They mainly conduct sample surveys and data analysis in various places in accordance with the investigation methods taught by the emperor and the investigation tasks assigned. It can be regarded as a special social investigation for the emperor.
Judging from the conclusions drawn by the Bureau of Statistics from spot checks of data and comprehensive intelligence analysis, no major disasters occurred in other places except the Huanghuai region in the third year of Wanli. Grain production was a normal year for the country. In addition, the promotion of sweet potatoes and potatoes has been somewhat successful, so the food problem should not be a big one.
Moreover, although Huanghuai was hit by the disaster last year, it was already autumn when Gaojiayan burst, and the rice had been filled and even harvested in some areas. After the flood receded, a small amount was harvested, so that the land would not be filled with hungry people. Coupled with the support of Changpingcang in various places in the south of the Yangtze River, it was not a big problem for the victims to survive until the autumn harvest in the fourth year of Wanli.
However, these are common sense judgments. Zhu Yijun cannot guarantee how many black hands will be involved in the entire process of relieving victims. If there is large-scale personal enrichment and hoarding, big trouble will really arise.
Is it possible that the major water conservancy project will be delayed for a year because of the Huanghuai floods? What if there is another disaster next year?
According to Zhu Yijun's plan, he must complete the basic water conservancy construction of farmland across the country before the coldest period of the Little Ice Age arrives. Otherwise, he will be overwhelmed by the huge reduction in grain production, and if he fails, he may even drag the entire nation into the abyss. Therefore, the water conservancy management of the Huanghuai River cannot and cannot afford to wait.
In Zhu Yijun's mind, in order to prepare for the upcoming large-scale natural disasters across the country, in addition to implementing water conservancy improvements across the country, it is inevitable to launch wars externally. But launching a war requires more national strength and food support - even if there is a difference in weapons brought by time travellers, after occupying a piece of land, it will take at least several years to feed back to China.
Zhu Yijun often feels that time waits for no one, and this is the most important reason. He read an article in later generations that the coldest period of the Little Ice Age probably began in 1600 - less than fifteen years ago. Even if it hadn't started from that time, it is certain that natural disasters would still occur frequently in the middle and late Wanli period.
Since there is no way to retreat, we can only move forward. After in-depth thinking and two more discussions with the cabinet, Zhu Yijun adopted a radical and bold approach to solve the Huanghuai disaster. The general idea is that if the problem cannot be solved, the people who caused the problem will be solved—the plan is to lure a large number of victims out of the disaster area and reduce the pressure on disaster relief.
Therefore, at the end of the third year of Wanli, the imperial court updated the policy of land granting in the Northeast: starting from the sixth year of Wanli, individuals who immigrated to the Northeast would not be granted more than 400 acres of land; after the ninth year of Wanli, the number of individual lands granted would not exceed 300 acres.
Just as Zhu Yijun, who was determined to do the reverse operation against all opinions, expected, the landless poor and wealthy branches simply could not accept such a decrease - by February of the fourth year of Wanli, the number of registered immigrants in the states and counties north of the Yellow River had doubled Two times, the total reached an astonishing 400,000 ding. ——And behind these Dingkou, there are also the elderly, women and children in the same family group as him, who are not included in the statistics of Dingkou. If they are all added up to calculate the population, it will be a terrifying number.
With the beginning of the immigration wave, many northern landowners, like Mr. Wang in Dengzhou, Shandong last year, found that their fields may face the dilemma of no one to rent them.
Therefore, just like Mr. Wang from Shandong, it became the instinctive choice of the landowners to recruit refugees and induce them to immigrate. They have used unbelievable land rents ranging from 35% to 40% to attract refugees and evicted people to farm on their own fields - and promised to take care of the food until the next autumn harvest.
Changes also occurred in Jiubian during the Ming Dynasty. A large amount of farmland was donated by the powerful because of the salt auction. At this time, there were also military landowners. In the third year of Wanli, with the large number of disaster victims and relocated people in Huaihe and Huaihe Rivers, the fields in Jiubian that had been abandoned in large numbers began to have tenants.
The soldiers who achieved first-level merit in Jiubian became small landowners for the first time in history. And the demonstration effect of their entry into the middle level of the empire has greatly changed the offensive and defensive posture of the entire Nine Borders. There are so many people who dare to fight, and the heads of Tartars have become the hardest currency.
These heads were wanted not only by the officers and soldiers who wanted to be granted land, but also by the Jurchen cavalry who participated in these wars. For the sake of their families who were waiting to be fed, they would not let go of every fighting opportunity to get their heads.
Dong Tuzi, who was outside Ji Town, suffered a disaster under this background. In an attack in March of the fourth year of Wanli, Dong Tuzi's main force was bitten by the Jurchen cavalry, and was finally attacked by General Zhang Chen and Ning Yuanbo from both sides. He made dumplings - in this single battle, he won the first rank. Eight thousand six hundred. As a result, another large number of small landowners with military merit were born.
Divide the land and recruit people, divide the land and recruit people! Many people in the fourth year of Wanli felt as if they had changed the world and couldn't remember when the empire began to lack people - and there was a shortage of people everywhere!
The unprecedented great undertakings of Salt Administration Reform, Northeast Development, and Huanghuai Management began to exert their unparalleled power at the end of the third year of Wanli. By the fourth year of Wanli, an unstoppable trend had already formed - it turns out The lifeless Ming Empire finally regained its vitality with the investment of large amounts of money and the large-scale circulation of goods, food, and people.
According to the records of contemporary literati and many historians of later generations, when describing the great changes that began in the fourth year of Wanli, the most commonly used sentence is: "In the third year of Wanli, the river broke through Gaojiayan. The emperor cited the Huanghuai Project as a guide and supplemented it with The great development of the Northeast is the beginning of the empire getting rid of the old and embracing the new; the rising sun and the rising moon are the foundation for a strong national power."
Bookstore
