Wanli Xinming

Chapter 132 Forward
As the first year's pioneers returned to their hometowns after the fall harvest, the whole of northern China was a sensation.The court soon received memorials from all over the country, reporting the poor and untouchables in the north, and the willingness to immigrate to the northeast flourished, reminding the state capitals and enclosures where they were promoted to prepare.

The cabinet added the number of immigrants for the coming year registered with the local government before the end of the year, which is likely to surge to [-].This ration and the expenditure on cattle and farm implements is a large amount.

Lv Tiaoyang, who was in charge of the general manager, did not dare to neglect, and hurriedly arranged for a large number of purchases of seeds, cattle, farm tools, etc. from various places, and transferred them to the northeast in the beginning of the spring.In order to prevent many immigrants from starving to death in the Northeast from continuing to happen in the first year, Lv Tiaoyang was tired and sick, and this year has not been a good one.

Lu Tiaoyang was tired, and Zhang Juzheng was even more tired.Zhang Juzheng became the prime minister for the project of "water conservancy management in the whole basin by diverting the Yellow River into the sea" that was decided by the imperial court.Although Wang Guoguang and the six divisions can share specific affairs, there are too many places to coordinate people to catch up.

In order to save time, Zhu Yijun specially ordered cabinet members not to leave the palace and work overtime in Wenyuan Pavilion.After doing this for more than a month, Zhu Yijun was startled when he saw that Zhang Juzheng lost weight, and finally lost his shape, like a paper man.

After all, Zhu Yijun asked Zhang Juzheng to let go of his official duties and rest for five days.In addition, the medical school has arranged for a health care doctor to regularly consult with senior officials above the Shangshu and adjust their meals. ——Arranged two for Zhang Juzheng to supervise his work, rest and diet.

Although the cabinet members were exhausted, Zhu Yijun, the black-hearted boss, didn't care. After arranging the health care doctor and rewarding the nutritional supplements, he still proceeded with state affairs at his own pace.At the end of the twelfth year in the third year of Wanli, and the Chinese New Year is coming, he listened to another report on the water conservancy improvement project to be implemented in the fourth year of Wanli.

During this reporting process, Zhang Juzheng calculated the food demand for Zhu Yijun for the fourth year of Wanli, and expressed concern about the upcoming major project.Money is not a big problem. Can the food survive after such a catastrophe in the two Huaihe Rivers?

After listening to Zhang Juzheng's report, Zhu Yijun felt a little nervous at the beginning, but after thinking about it, he felt that he should continue to work.

Since the Ministry of Household has not kept statistics on the total amount of grain production in the country for many years, and only deduced it from the grain tax, the grain output estimated by Zhang Juzheng is actually very inaccurate. - At least the part of the data on the evasion of food taxes is not included in the statistics.

After Zhu Yijun took charge of Jinyiwei, in the second year of Wanli, he made a major expansion of Jinyiwei, added internal division of labor, and established the Bureau of Statistics.

There are not many people in this bureau, but the quality and ability are very high. They mainly conduct sample surveys and data analysis in various places according to the investigation methods and investigation tasks assigned by the emperor's professor, which are regarded as special social investigations for the emperor.

Judging from the conclusion made by the Bureau of Statistics' random inspection of data and comprehensive intelligence analysis, in the third year of Wanli, except for the Huanghuai area, other places were not affected by major disasters, and food production was an ordinary year for the whole country.And the promotion of sweet potatoes and potatoes has also been slightly successful, and the food problem should not be big.

And last year, although Huanghuai was hit by disasters, it was already autumn when Gaojiayan burst, and the rice had been grouted and even harvested in some areas.After the floods receded, another half was harvested, so as not to starve to death.Coupled with the support of Changping positions in various places in the south of the Yangtze River, it is not a problem for the victims to survive the autumn harvest of the fourth year of Wanli.

However, this is a common sense judgment, and Zhu Yijun cannot guarantee how many black hands will be involved in the whole process of relief for the victims.If there is a large-scale self-enrichment and hoarding, there will really be big trouble.

Could it be because of the Huanghuai flood that delayed the construction of a major water conservancy project for a year?What if there is another disaster next year?
According to Zhu Yijun's plan, he must complete the basic water conservancy construction of the country's farmland before the coldest period of the Little Ice Age.Therefore, the water conservancy management of the Huanghuai River cannot wait and cannot wait.

In Zhu Yijun's mind, in order to meet the upcoming large-scale natural disasters across the country, in addition to implementing water conservancy renovations across the country, wars must be waged externally.But launching a war requires more national strength and food support - even if there is a difference in weapons brought by the traveller, after occupying a piece of land, it will take at least several years to feed back to China.

Zhu Yijun often feels that the time is running out of time, and this is the most important reason.He read an article in later generations that the coldest period of the Little Ice Age probably started in 15—less than [-] years from now.Even if it hadn't started since then, it is certain that natural disasters were still frequent in the middle and late Wanli period.

Since there is no way back, the only option is to move forward.After in-depth thinking, Zhu Yijun discussed with the cabinet twice, and adopted a radical and bold approach to solve the Huanghuai disaster.The general idea is that if the problem cannot be solved, then the person who caused the problem will be solved—the plan is to lead a large number of disaster victims out of the disaster area and reduce the pressure of disaster relief.

As a result, at the end of the third year of Wanli, the court updated the policy of granting land to the northeast: starting from the sixth year of Wanli, the individual who immigrated to the northeast would be granted no more than [-] mu of land; after the ninth year of Wanli, the individual granted land would not exceed [-] mu.

Just as Zhu Yijun, who resisted all opinions and must operate in the opposite direction, expected that the landless poor and the wealthy branch could not accept such a decline. 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 40 Ding. ——And behind these Dingkou, there are the elderly, women and children from his same group of families who were not included in the Dingkou statistics. If they are all added up to calculate the population, it will be a terrifying number.

With the start of the immigration tide, many northern landlords, like Mr. Wang in Dengzhou, Shandong last year, found that their fields may be faced with the dilemma of no one to rent.

So, just like the way of the master of Shandong, recruiting refugees and inducing immigration became the instinctive choice of the landlords.They have used unbelievable rents ranging from [-]% to [-]% to attract refugees and relocated people to cultivate their fields from their homes—and promise to keep the food in charge until the next autumn harvest.

Changes also occurred in the Jiubian of Daming. A large amount of farmland was donated by the powerful due to the auction of the salt field. 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 the two Huaihe Rivers, the land that had been abandoned in large quantities in Jiubian also began to have tenants.

The soldier who obtained the first-level merit in Jiubian became a small landlord for the first time in the world.The demonstration effect of their entry into the middle tier of the empire made a huge change in the offensive and defensive situation of the entire nine sides. There were as many people who dared to fight, and the heads of the Tartars became the hardest currency.

These heads are not only wanted by the officers and soldiers who have been awarded fields, but also by the Jurchen cavalry who participated in these wars. For the sake of their families who are waiting to feed, they will not let go of every combat opportunity that may get the head.

It was against this background that Dong Baldzi, who was on the outskirts of Ji Town, suffered disaster.In a sortie battle in March of the fourth year of Wanli, Dong Baldzi's main force was bitten by the Jurchen cavalry, and finally he was attacked by Zhang Chen and Ning Yuanbo on both sides, making dumplings - in this battle alone, he won the first rank Eight thousand six hundred.As a result, another large number of small landowners with military merits were born.

Divide the land, recruit people, divide the land, recruit people!In the fourth year of Wanli, many people felt that they had changed the world, and they couldn't remember when the empire started to lack people - there were still people everywhere!
The salt administration reform, the development of the Northeast, and the governance of Huanghuai, these unprecedented great achievements, began to develop their unparalleled power at the end of the third year of Wanli, and by the fourth year of Wanli, they had already formed a general trend that was unstoppable - the original The dead Ming Empire, with the input of a large amount of currency, the large-scale circulation of commodities, food, and personnel, finally glowed with vitality.

In the records of contemporary literati and the records of many historians in 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 will rise to Gaojiayan. The great development of the Northeast is the beginning of the empire’s rebirth of the old and the new; the strong national strength of the rising sun and the moon is the foundation of this occasion.”

(End of this chapter)