I want to be emperor

Chapter 697 The Backyard of the Empire
In the 23rd year of Chengshun, in autumn and October, Jinling City was full of prosperous and prosperous atmosphere as always, and many commercial streets were crowded with people, very lively.

As far as the prosperity of a simple city is concerned, it has also appeared in the prosperous times of various dynasties in the past.

However, the so-called prosperity and prosperity of any dynasty is different from the prosperity and prosperity of the Great Chu Empire.

In the Great Chu Empire, not only big cities like Jinling City were prosperous, but also many small and medium-sized cities, and even ordinary rural areas lived and worked in peace and contentment.

I dare not say that I can be completely full, but at least there will be no large-scale famine or starvation to death.

In the past dynasties, the so-called prosperous and prosperous times were nothing more than the sharp decline in population after frequent and long-term wars, followed by fewer people and more land, and land conflicts were eased.

The so-called ZTE is the same!

In essence, the population is reduced and the land is more, so the per capita food is more.

So when you look at the so-called prosperity and ZTE of all dynasties from the perspective of per capita food, you will find a very cruel fact: before the prosperity or ZTE, there will be a large-scale population extinction event, and this event is without exception It's all war!

Even so, the per capita food in these so-called flourishing ages is still a very bleak figure.

On the side of the Great Chu Empire, the restoration of people's livelihood in the early days could not get rid of this rule, which was especially evident in the northern provinces.

There is still so much land in the northern provinces, but the population has dropped significantly after experiencing various natural and man-made disasters in the late Ming Dynasty.

After the Great Chu Empire pacified these places and organized the local people to resume agricultural production, land conflicts were no longer so intense. Correspondingly, after the restoration of normal agricultural production, the per capita grain data has increased to a certain extent.

But this situation is only limited to the early days!

In the Great Chu Empire, industrialization continued to develop. First, water-powered machinery, and then various factories powered by steam-powered equipment were put into production, and production efficiency was greatly improved.

This increase in industrial production efficiency not only brings about a simple increase in industrial and commercial income, but also greatly reduces the cost and selling price of various industrial products that can be used in agriculture.

Such as farm tools and various daily tools!
In the past, iron hoes, plows, sickles, firewood knives, axes and other agricultural production tools were very precious to any ordinary peasant family.

Because iron is expensive, agricultural tools made of high-quality iron materials are more expensive!

If an ordinary peasant family wants to buy an iron hoe, it will take a long time to live frugally.

The constraints of production tools have led to limited production efficiency of farmers in previous agricultural production.

But in the Great Chu Empire, iron is no longer an expensive raw material, and iron products are no longer expensive tools.

Because of the official capital and profit-seeking private capital in the Great Chu Empire, they invested in and developed countless iron ore and coal mines.

Also opened and built a large number of steel plants.

The amount of steel raw materials it produces is very large, enough to lower the price of iron products to a level acceptable to the public.

In addition, the official capital of the Great Chu Empire has promoted the plan of local machinery factories from the very beginning, ensuring that every prefecture-level/state-level administrative region has at least one government-run small machinery factory. For other purposes, it is dedicated to the mass production of various tools required for various types of agricultural production, and to supply the local market at a low price.

A large amount of mineral mining, a large amount of steel raw materials, plus local small machinery factories everywhere.

These have enabled the farmers of the Great Chu Empire to obtain enough various production tools, especially agricultural tools, at low prices.

The improvement of production tools has led to an increase in the production efficiency of farmers in the Great Chu Empire. The per capita cultivated land is more, or they can have more slack time to do odd jobs, or do other things to make money to subsidize their families.

In addition to the improvement of tools, the extensive promotion of animal husbandry by the Great Chu Empire is also an important reason for the improvement of agricultural production efficiency.

In the feudal dynasty, cattle, mules and horses were all expensive production tools, and the price was extremely expensive, and ordinary peasant families could not own them at all.

However, the officials of the Great Chu Empire began to vigorously promote the development of private animal husbandry, especially the development of cattle and agricultural mules and horses. Through the preparation of a large number of government-run cattle or mules and horse farms, more cattle or agricultural mules and horses were cultivated and promoted to the market, and at the same time vigorously encourage private capital to invest in animal husbandry.

When the supply of farm cattle and mules and horses increases, the prices of farm cattle and mules and horses will naturally gradually decrease.

Coupled with the gradual increase in farmers' income, some wealthy peasant families have gradually been able to purchase and breed cattle.

After about ten years of support and promotion of agricultural and animal husbandry, the number of farm cattle and agricultural mules and horses in the Great Chu Empire has become very large.

This has further improved the per capita productivity of agriculture.

Of course, the Great Chu Empire continued to build various water conservancy facilities for 20 years.

Each of these measures and each policy may have only a small effect, but when the effects of many policies are summed up, it is a very impressive figure.

In addition, the Great Chu Empire is still carrying out large-scale agricultural development in the north where there are few people and a lot of land, especially in the Northeast. The large-scale horse farming is carried out here, which has added a lot of extra food supply to the Great Chu Empire .

There are also expansion and colonization activities in the Nanyang region, which also brought a large number of food sources to the Great Chu Empire.

The large-scale animal husbandry in the northern grasslands, although the meat provided by the animal husbandry in these places is difficult to supply to places too far away due to the lack of fresh-keeping technology, but it is not a problem to supply local and some northern provinces locally .

The northern provinces get more meat supply, so the corresponding consumption of rice and other food will be less, and then gradually rice, wheat and other food can be transferred to the south, eventually improving the food supply level of the entire empire.

In the end, the per capita grain of the Great Chu Empire has increased significantly in the past 20 years.

There was a lack of limited data in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, but based on a few data, it can be inferred that in the early years of the founding of the People's Republic of China, in most places under the rule of the empire, the per capita grain level was only a little over 250 kilograms, and food exceeding [-] kilograms was rare.

Looking at it at the level of later generations, the entire empire is in a state of severe famine.

In the 12th year of Chengshun, Suzhou Prefecture, the wealthiest and highest per capita grain in the Great Chu Empire, was only 320 kilograms. In many places, it was only [-] to [-] kilograms, and in a few places, it was only about [-] kilograms.

At that time, the Great Chu Empire was still in a state of famine, and most of the people had never tried to eat enough...

By the way, as an aside, don’t underestimate the level of the Great Chu Empire. In the 12th year of Chengshun, the per capita food level of the Great Chu Empire was almost the same as that of India in the 21st century.

In India in the 21st century, the self-produced food per capita is only more than 200 kilograms... probably similar to the early days of the Great Chu Empire, but they still export food on a large scale under such circumstances... It is also a miracle!

In later generations of the world, among the non-war-torn countries that ordinary people can call famous, she is the only one in a state of severe starvation...North Korea is stronger than it. According to the statistical standard of the United Nations, she is at least [-] kilograms.

As a comparison, in later generations, generally speaking, the per capita food in a normal country should be maintained at more than [-] kilograms. If it is lower than this figure, there is a risk of famine... Commonly known as people can't eat enough!
In the past 20 years of the Great Chu Empire, in fact, most of the time the people did not have enough to eat...

There is no way to do this. The agricultural production technology is only at this level, and there are so many people.

In the seventh year of Chengshun, when the various forces of the Remnant Ming Dynasty and the Southwest garrison were initially pacified, all large-scale internal wars ended, and when the Great Chu Empire fully controlled the land of China, the population of the preliminary statistics was around 8000 million.Moreover, the population continues to rise. In the past 20 years, according to preliminary statistics, the population has increased by at least 1 million...

At present, the population of the Great Chu Empire is more than 5000 million people, and the population growth rate is extremely fast!
Although the grain output has also doubled, but the population growth rate is also fast, so it is very difficult to increase the per capita grain.

However, after 20 years of hard work, especially the water conservancy facilities in various places have been basically improved, and the Liaodong and grasslands have been developed, which has increased the source of food in the Nanyang area. After manual diversion, focus on the development of grain industries in Henan, Jiangbei, Anlu, Hebei, Shandong and other places.

After great efforts, today, the 23rd year of Chengshun, according to the statistical report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the per capita grain level of the Great Chu Empire has increased to [-] kilograms.

Although this data is still very correct, but for the Great Chu Empire, this is already a very remarkable achievement.

This is an achievement achieved under the premise of a large population growth, limited agricultural technology conditions, no use of chemical fertilizers, and no mechanized planting.

In this regard, it is still thanks to the large amount of additional food imports from the Nanyang region and the additional food supply obtained from the large-scale agricultural development in the Liaodong region.

If you only rely on the self-produced grains of the provinces in the Guanzhong area... don't count on [-] kilograms, if you can get [-] kilograms, you have to burn the incense.

The reason why we talk about so much food is because people depend on food!

No matter how much land the Great Chu Empire conquered, no matter how many guns and warships the army was equipped with, it was meaningless in itself to beat up the natives of the world.

The strength of the military itself will not allow even a grain of food to be added to the rice bowls of the people.

On the contrary, it also consumes money and food!

Only when the military expansion is used to plunder food, or simply cultivate land, to expand the rations of its own people, can this have practical significance.

This kind of expansion can bring about the so-called prosperous age. Otherwise, if you just fight and can't get food from the outside, it will be poor soldiers redeeming their weapons, and the war will be over sooner or later if you are hungry.

And the external expansion of the Great Chu Empire, if you look at its essence, you will find that the expansion of the empire is not for gold or silver, but for food!
It doesn't matter whether it is through colonization, plundering the indigenous people's food economically, or directly occupying the land and developing and growing food by themselves.

It's all about getting more food to feed the people.

This is also the core goal of the three major overseas expansion plans of the Great Chu Empire.

Today, these three major overseas expansions are already underway.

In the plan to create an absolute coastal defense circle for the local coast, the Edo Tokugawa shogunate in Fuso has already recognized the reality. In the spring of this year, the Chu army landed on Kyushu Island on a large scale and defeated more than ten people organized by the Tokugawa shogunate. Wan Dajun captured many important members of the Tokugawa family alive.

In turn, the Tokugawa family was forced to sign the "Chu-Ri Hirado Treaty", which was even more stringent than the original conditions put forward by the Great Chu Empire.

The two most important clauses are:

The Emperor of Japan revoked the title of Emperor, and changed the title from the Great Chu Empire to the King of Japan. The succession of the new Japanese king needs to be canonized by the Empire before he becomes the official king;

The Toku-Edo Shogunate, which actually controls the power of Japan, and its Tokugawa family's title of "Shogun of the Barbarians" need to be approved and appointed by the empire.

These two items alone mean that Japan has officially become a puppet state of the empire.

Without the nod of the empire, the Tokugawa family would not even be able to succeed as the 'Great General Who Conquests Yi'.

In addition to these two core clauses, there are a whole bunch of messy conditions, covering everything from political rights to economic rights and military power.

There are two main conditions. One is military. The army of the Great Chu Empire has the right to travel freely anywhere in the Fusang Islands, and has the right to garrison troops in certain designated places for a long time.

This is the right to garrison troops and the right of military access.

The second point is that the Tokugawa shogunate and other major names are not allowed to develop or keep workshops and factories that manufacture guns, ammunition, and warships. Once discovered, the Great Chu Empire will launch a thunderous attack.

However, in order to meet the needs of the Tokugawa shogunate and the major names for internal suppression and guns against each other, the Great Chu Empire will open up the export of guns and guns. Household arms trading company' order guns and other military supplies.

The reason why they still need guns is that the Great Chu Empire has made it clear that the empire will not interfere in the internal affairs of the Kingdom of Japan, especially the conflicts between the shogunate and the major names.

One sentence: From now on, you can do whatever you like internally... We don't care about wars... These words are almost telling those ambitious big names: you can fight for more territory and interests.

The second is economic. The market of the Kingdom of Japan is fully open to the empire. Imperial merchants can conduct business, life, mining, etc. in the Kingdom of Japan on their own, and tariffs are set by the empire and the shogunate. In principle, any kind of goods tariff Neither shall exceed 5.00%.

The shogunate and other daimyos who participated in the war jointly assumed the 5000 million Chu Yuan war indemnity, because it was impossible for the Japanese side to get so much money, so the Great Chu Empire Financial Bank and the other three banks jointly provided loans for payment, and the Japanese side paid it with tariffs. , salt tax and other financial revenues are mortgaged and repaid in installments over 50 years.

The interest on this loan is naturally not low. In order to ensure their smooth repayment, the customs and salt tax agencies were established and managed by the empire directly, and other administrative revenues were also supervised by the empire.

Putting all these conditions together, the Kingdom of Japan has actually completely become a puppet state of the Great Chu Empire, and will continue to be bloodied by the Great Chu Empire in the days to come...

This is also the strategy that the Great Chu Empire has set for Fusang at the beginning. There are too many local people to annex it directly, so let’s build a puppet state first, and continue to suck blood as a dumping ground for industrial goods, especially weapons.

This is also an important reason why the Great Chu Empire clearly stated that it would not interfere in the affairs of the major names in the Kingdom of Japan after the war.

Now the Great Chu Empire wished that they would fight first, and then sell weapons to make money!

And the fact is indeed the case. Some ambitious daimyos have already started actively contacting the arms merchants of the Great Chu Empire, preparing to buy a large number of weapons to fight a big battle!

The affairs of the Fusang Islands have basically come to an end with the signing of the Chu-Japanese Hirado Treaty in June 23, and the success of the Luzon Islands has also been achieved.

After a long period of negotiations, the Great Chu Empire and the Kingdom of Spain finally reached an agreement on the purchase of the Luzon Islands.

According to this agreement, the Great Chu Empire will invest 260 million Chu Yuan to fully obtain control of the Luzon Islands from the Spaniards, and the Spaniards need to smoothly hand over the colonial fortresses.

And the 260 million Chu Yuan was not cash, but was paid at discounted prices of various commodities.

Considering that these commodities were exported at a very high premium, the final actual cost paid by the Great Chu Empire was actually less than 100 million Chu Yuan.

It took less than 100 million Chu Yuan to smoothly take over the control of the entire Luzon Islands, and also obtained the various fortress cities that the Spaniards have operated on the Luzon Islands for many years. This is quite a bargain buy and sell.

At least it is much cheaper than the Chu army launching a war by itself.

The conclusion of the Fuso business and the smooth purchase of the Luzon Islands means that the first of the three major plans for overseas expansion has been successfully completed.

Next, it is time to substantially advance the second plan and the third plan.

Everyone in the empire is looking forward to this, and many people, especially those in the industrial and commercial circles targeting overseas exports, are already gearing up and preparing to make a fortune in this wave of overseas expansion.

Leaving aside the expectations of domestic businessmen for overseas expansion, the navy is also preparing an important strategic plan for them: to seize Batavia in the west of Java Island and the Spice Islands area controlled by the Dutch.

The Great Chu Empire wants to completely drive out the last European colonizer "Dutch" in the Nanyang region, and make the Nanyang region the real back garden of the empire!

　Let everyone wait for a long time...

　　I didn't have a fever today on a rainy day. Although I was still tired, I still wrote [-] words.

　　In the next few days, I will try my best to keep updating, and please don’t be offended if I can’t maintain it...

　　I still have to take care of a family of women and children for myself, and at the same time, I have to be considerate of the rainy days of coding, thank you!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)