Daming Crazy Emperor

Chapter 16 Natural Disaster
The world is impermanent, and people rarely have smooth sailing.

Taichang is looking forward to creating new guns and artillery as soon as possible to sweep the world, but there is a very bad news from the northwest.

This year, the drought in Guanzhong and northern Shaanxi was particularly severe, and the farmland was almost useless. Many ordinary people became refugees and began to migrate to Guanzhong and Nanyang under the jurisdiction of Yunyang Fuzhi.

Alas, Daming can't escape the Little Ice River natural disaster after all!
This natural disaster that lasted for hundreds of years was simply the nightmare of Ming Dynasty. The temperature in the northern border of Daming began to drop slowly during the reign of Hongzhi, and the temperature dropped sharply in the middle of Wanli period. The cold air gradually pushed the rainwater to the south. Directly lead to continuous droughts in the north and continuous floods in the south.

By the first year of Taichang, the drought in the northwest had actually lasted for decades, but sometimes the drought was particularly severe, and sometimes it was mild.

The Apocalypse Dynasty and Chongzhen Dynasty in history were even worse. At that time, the northwestern part of the Ming Dynasty could be said to have experienced nine droughts in ten years, and the area affected by the drought became wider and wider, first in Shaanxi, then in Shanxi, and then in Henan. Tens of millions of people in the three northwestern provinces lost their food sources and were forced to become refugees.

It can be said that this natural disaster was the direct cause of the demise of the Ming Dynasty. Otherwise, with all the power of the Ming Dynasty, how could it still be able to defeat Jiannu with a total population of less than one million?

The problem is that the Little Ice River natural disaster has consumed too much manpower and material resources of Daming, and the Ming Dynasty has no way to deal with Jiannu with all its strength!
The refugees will rebel if they are very hungry. If this problem is not resolved, Ming Dynasty will perish!

Looking at the memorial that Yunyang Fuzhi handed over, Taichang frowned.

How to solve this problem?
He sat there frowning and thinking for a while, and he really thought of it.

Sweet Potatoes and Potatoes!
Historically, the Little Ice River disaster actually lasted until the Qing Dynasty, but the population of the Qing Dynasty achieved explosive growth relying on these two things, which shows how powerful these two things are.

It is rumored that both sweet potatoes and potatoes were introduced from Luzon, Southeast Asia. At the beginning, they were only planted in Fujian on the southeast coast. After decades, they slowly spread to the inland and north.

I don't know where this thing has spread at the moment. It is definitely not possible to let it spread slowly. We must find high-quality seedlings and vigorously promote it. This should solve the food crisis.

However, far away water can't solve the near fire. It will take at least a few years for sweet potatoes and potatoes to spread throughout Daming. If the current hundreds of thousands of refugees don't care, they will really rebel if they are very hungry.

This kind of thing did not only appear at the end of the Ming Dynasty. Since the Hongzhi period, such things as refugee rebellion have happened from time to time. Yunyang Fuzhi was set up specifically to deal with the rebellion of the refugees in the northwest.

The full name of Yunyang Fuzhi is Fuzhi Yunyang and other localities who are also admirals of military affairs. The places under Fuzhi have five provinces, eight prefectures and nine states. The area is so large that it exceeds any province in Ming Dynasty. When a large-scale natural disaster occurs in the northwest, Refugees like to flee to these places. It is rumored that during the worst droughts, millions of refugees flocked to Yunyang Fuzhi area, and the most of them even reached more than 200 million.

Taichang specifically went through various records since the establishment of Fuzhi in Yunyang. Since the reign of Hongzhi, there have been more than ten records of rebellion by refugees, but the scale is not very large. Yang Fuzhi mobilized the army to calm down.

At this time, if the refugees in the northwest revolted again, it would be difficult to say whether they could be calmed down, because Daming didn't have any large army to mobilize right now!

It seemed that Luo Yangxing had to be ordered to send the food copied from Fu Wang's mansion to Yunyang for emergency.

Alas, there is just a little money, but it will not be enough immediately.

Taichang looked at the list that Luo Yangxing had urgently sent over by Babaili two days ago, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

This time, he did not get as much money as he had imagined from copying Prince Fu's Mansion. The silver was only more than 300 million taels, and the food was only more than 100 million shi.

Fu Wang shouldn't be so "poor" in the first place, but this guy has a problem with his brain, and it scares him to death when he spends money.

In the list, there are dozens of cars of treasures, antiques, calligraphy and paintings alone, more than 300 million mu of fertile land, and thousands of land deeds for houses and shops!

You know, the fertile land at this moment is more than 20 taels per mu, and the better ones are more than 25 taels. When King Fu became a vassal, Wanli only sealed him 200 hectares of fertile land, which is 100 million mu. The more than [-] million acres that came out were all acquired by King Fu himself after he became the vassal.

Even if he buys and sells by various means, and annexes the more than 100 million mu of fertile land at half price, that is more than 1000 million taels of silver!
There are also treasures, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, dozens of cars worth at least 500 million taels.

There are also houses and shops plus the value of the goods inside are at least several million taels!

The problem is, once the money is spent, it will be difficult to get it back.

Who has so much money these days?
The other vassals probably couldn't come up with so much money if they pooled all the money they could!

Taichang really had a headache. Originally, he planned to use the money and food to solve the problem of slavery. Now it's over. He doesn't know how much money he will spend just for disaster relief.

One million shi is enough to feed hundreds of thousands of refugees for a few months, and more than three million taels is only enough to pay for more than 100 troops in Liaodong for a year. But Xiong Tingbi said that if you want to clean up the slaves, you don't need 20 troops Don't even think about it, you have to know that during the Sarhu war, Daming assembled nearly 20 troops, but he still lost!
Oh, money, where can I find money!

In desperation, Taichang had no choice but to order someone to bring the books of the treasury and the internal treasury to see if he could increase his source of income.

I don't know if I don't see it, but I was really shocked when I saw it.

The Ming court and royal family originally had a lot of income.

For example, land tax and labor service are the main sources of revenue for the Ming treasury. After the implementation of the whip law, these two taxes alone will be about 400 million taels a year, which is enough to pay the salaries of all officials.

Another example is the taxes on salt, iron, and tea, which are more than three million taels a year, which is enough to support the food and salaries of more than [-] frontier troops.

There are also various Huangzhuang, various mines, Jiangxi official kilns, Jiangnan weaving, foreign trade, etc., all of which can be regarded as royal income. In the past, they could easily earn more than two million taels a year.

However, now, taxes on salt, iron, and tea have been reduced by more than half, and they can earn more than 100 million taels a year. The combined annual income of the imperial kilns, Jiangnan weaving, etc. is less than 30 taels, and the inner warehouse is almost empty!

What is going on here?
Taichang looked at the mountain of ledgers in front of him, a hint of madness gradually appeared in his eyes.

He decided to go to Jiangnan to see for himself and see what was going on!

The saltworks of the imperial court, various large-scale mining mines, and the transshipment trade of tea and porcelain, etc., were almost all concentrated in the south of the Yangtze River. As long as he went to see it himself, he would definitely be able to find out the reason.

He knew very well that the money was either swallowed up by the court officials or the eunuchs in the palace. It is even possible that these people have joined together to form a huge interest group, which specializes in embezzling court taxes and royal family income!

Therefore, this matter must be done by himself. If he asks the court officials or the eunuchs in the palace to investigate, it is estimated that nothing will be found out.

No matter what, he had to go to Jiangnan as soon as possible, even if it wasn't for money, but just for sweet potatoes and potato seedlings, he had to go there.

Also, the treasures, antiques, calligraphy and paintings copied from Prince Fu’s mansion will definitely not be sold in the capital. Who would dare to buy these things under his nose? Didn’t they tell him that he is a big corrupt official? !
It would be different if they were brought to Jiangnan to sell. Jiangnan is extremely rich. As long as a big dealer can be found as an agent, treasures, antiques, calligraphy and paintings worth several million taels can be turned into cash in a few months.

Thinking of this, Taichang couldn't help but said loudly to the door: "Broadcast to Xu Guangqi and Bi Maokang."

Xu Guangqi is from Huating, Songjiang, Southern Zhili Province, and Bi Maokang is from Shexian County, Huizhou, Southern Zhili Province. These two people can be said to be proper local snakes. He is going to find out about the situation in Jiangnan with them first, and then decide what way to go. Jiangnan visit.

(End of this chapter)