Daming: I help my wife be the empress

Chapter 397 Lu Zhenfei's Suggestion, Hao Guangming's Strange Move

Seeing that everyone was frowning tightly and did not speak, Yuan Jixian knew that his chief assistant had to say something.

He said: "If Sichuan's grain is to be kept as military rations, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Yunnan can only squeeze out some grain.

In addition, although the spring grain harvests in Jiangxi and Huguang in Hunan are also poor, the situation should not be as serious as that in Nanzhili and Zhejiang, right?

If we give up stabilizing food prices and just avoid a major famine, the food gap needed by the four provinces may not be that big. "

Ma Shiying shook his head when he heard the words, "Yuanfu's words are wrong, how can the important affairs of the country be entrusted to the possibility?

And this year, not only the four provinces of Nanzhi, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Huguang are short of food, but also Henan?
Since the Qing captives gave up the land of Henan, the imperial court must not refuse to take it, right?If Henan is collected, a large amount of food will be needed to relieve the victims. "

After Ma Shiying finished speaking, several cabinet ministers were speechless for a while.

Although Aimee Zhu had expected the abilities of the first batch of cabinet ministers, she was still disappointed, thinking that none of them were qualified.

She was about to end the meeting, when she went to discuss with Hao Guangming, she saw Lu Zhenfei standing up.

"Your Majesty, as far as I know, when there is a food shortage or a famine, ordinary people may have no food left in their families, but the gentry and landlords do have some food in reserve.

The old minister believed that the court could do two things to alleviate the food shortage.

One is to order local governments to buy grain from gentry and landlords, and then sell it to the common people at a low price, or provide relief to release the grain stored by the common people.

The second is to order grain merchants not to hoard and deliberately raise grain prices.

As Yuanfu said, although the harvests in the four provinces have been poor this year, it should not be possible to increase the price per shimi to more than four taels.

The imperial court should strictly investigate this matter and punish a group of grain merchants who maliciously hoard grain and falsely raise grain prices, so as to make an example of others.

Then order localities to limit the price of grain, for example, a stone of rice should not exceed three taels of silver, and offenders will be severely punished.

This will definitely bring down the price of grain in the four provinces and alleviate the food shortage. If we persist until the harvest of autumn grain in September, we will be able to overcome this difficulty. "

After hearing Lu Zhenfei's words, Auntie Zhu was slightly pleasantly surprised.

There are still one or two capable ministers in the cabinet.

Who knows, just as she stretched her brows, Zhang Youyu said anxiously: "Your Majesty, what Lu Shangshu said is not feasible."

Aunt Zhu was displeased, but she still asked, "Why is it not possible?"

Zhang Youyu said: "One thing is that natural disasters and man-made disasters have been going on in various provinces for several years, even if the gentry and landlords have surplus food, there must not be much.

Nowadays, food is precious, even if the government comes forward, it may not be able to buy much food from gentry and landlords everywhere.

Second, grain merchants sell grain in various places, and the picture is nothing more than a word of profit.

If the government imposes a price limit on grain, they will have no profit, so how can they be willing to transport grain to various places for sale?

In this way, the people in the famine land will not even be able to buy high-priced food, and more people will starve to death! "

Auntie Zhu frowned and remained silent for a while.

Seeing this, Ma Shiying's heart moved, and he said: "Your Majesty, I think that what Lu Shangshu and Zhang Shangshu said has some truth, or a compromise can be taken.

On the one hand, the imperial court can collect food from Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Yunnan to support Nanzhili and Zhejiang, which have the largest food shortage.

On the other hand, the local government can also let the gentry and landlords buy surplus grain and sell it at a lower price to lower the price of grain.

Finally, a group of hoarding grain merchants can be punished and the price of grain can be fixed.

But the price limit of three taels or six is ​​too harsh, and it may be left to the provinces to decide on their own, with a maximum of four taels. "

After Ma Shiying finished speaking, Xie Xuelong said: "Your Majesty, I think whether it is to let the localities buy grain from the gentry and landlords, or to crack down on grain merchants, it may cause local turmoil.

Now that His Majesty has succeeded to the throne for less than a month, and there is a food shortage in the four provinces, the local government regards stability as the main priority, and any policy that is likely to cause turmoil must be handled with caution! "

Xie Xuelong's words couldn't be heard by Auntie Zhu, so she didn't give him face, and retorted coldly: "According to what Xie Qing said, the imperial court should do nothing? Let the food prices rise and watch the people starve to death?

Or, Xie Qing thought, with my 80 million new army, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong would no longer appear in this land south of the Yangtze River? ! "

Zhu Yuxi's refutation made Xie Xuelong's face pale, and he hurriedly bowed deeply, saying: "I definitely don't mean that!"

Aimee Zhu was too lazy to talk to him any more, and she didn't want to listen to the other cabinet ministers anymore—after discussing for so long, she said everything she could.

She waved her hand and said, "Preach my will to order Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian to allocate grain as appropriate to support Huguang, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, and Nanzhili.

The local governments were ordered to try to requisition surplus grain from gentry and landlords, sell it at a low price, and relieve the victims of the disaster, so as to alleviate the grain shortage.

Then order all localities to strictly investigate grain merchants hoarding and hoarding, and anyone who falsely raises the price of grain will be severely punished! "

Having said that, Aimee Zhu paused for a moment before saying, "Well, that's all for now."

After hearing this, all the cabinet ministers couldn't help showing strange expressions.

One is because Aunt Zhu actually asked Sichuan to transfer grain to support it—this is understandable: most likely, Sichuan has a good harvest of grain and is still able to support other provinces in addition to supporting the army.

The second reason is that Auntie Zhu didn't even mention the food price limit.

Regarding this, Lu Zhenfei asked directly: "Why doesn't Your Majesty set a price limit for food?"

Aunt Zhu said: "The price of food is of great importance. After investigation, I will make an order."

This was suggested by Hao Guangming.

The imperial court can limit the price of food, but it must be within a reasonable range, otherwise it is really easy to be self-defeating.

In the absence of any investigation, a few ministers issued an imperial decree to specify a specific number based on hearsay from a few ministers, which is true and irresponsible.

After the cabinet ministers left, Aunt Zhu disappeared on the dragon chair in the main hall of the Hall of Martial Arts.

When she returned to the old house in the bamboo forest, she no longer suppressed her emotions, and said angrily, "I'm so mad!"

Hao Guangming came over and put his arms around her to persuade him: "Don't be angry—think about the performance of those cabinet ministers when your father was in power, these cabinet ministers of yours are already considered pretty good, at least Lu Zhenfei put forward some positive, actionable advice.

Besides, with the situation in the late Ming Dynasty, do you really expect them to have any good solutions?

If you really want to solve the problem, you have to rely on your golden fingers. "

Auntie Zhu still frowned, and said, "Goldfinger... I have already contacted Zheng Zhilong, but even if he agrees immediately, it will probably take two or three months for his fleet to transport grain from Southeast Asia to Nanzhili, where? Can it solve the immediate problem?"

Hao Guangming smiled and said, "That's because you haven't used the golden finger enough."

"Do you have another way?" Zhu Yu turned her head and almost touched Hao Guangming's nose.

Hao Guangming let her go, took her hand and sat on the sofa together.

"Actually, I was also inspired by what Lu Zhenfei said just now.

Even if there is a food shortage or shortage, there must be a considerable number of gentry and landlords who have a lot of food in deposit.

In fact, at that time, the common people's land ownership was already very low, and most of the land was in the hands of gentry and landlords. In this way, regardless of good or bad years, most of the grain harvested was also in their hands.

If the common people have enough fields, even if there is a famine year, there will not be a food shortage in summer, after all, the spring grain has just been harvested at this time.

Therefore, although the main cause of your food shortage is natural disasters and military disasters, the low land occupation rate of ordinary people is also an important reason.

You should know that even if it was not a famine year and there were no military disasters, some ordinary people in the late Ming Dynasty would flee from famine due to lack of food and become refugees. "

Hearing this, Auntie Zhu, who has been influenced by all kinds of information in modern society for more than a year, couldn't help but clenched her fists tightly, and said in a cold tone: "Then I'll just throw the table and send troops to fight against local tyrants in the south of the Yangtze River to divide the land. Use their food reserves to help ordinary people!"

"Don't worry." Hao Guangming said, "What I said just now is after all inferences. It's hard to say how much food the gentry and landlords in the south of the Yangtze River have.

Besides, the situation is not so urgent that it is necessary to do so.

If you really do this, the provinces in the south of the Yangtze River will probably be in chaos. Even if you can calm down in the end, the country's vitality will be greatly damaged and its development potential will be lost. "

Aunt Zhu said unhappily: "Then don't you just ignore these gentry and landowners? Let them occupy most of my land in Daming?"

"Of course not." Hao Guangming found that Auntie Zhu's angry look was cute, and patiently explained: "We reformed the household department before, and the new policies that will be carried out later, such as clearing up the land, dividing people into acres, and abolishing the gentry's tax-free privileges, are not all. Is it for 'retrofitting' them?
If they are not willing to accept the 'transformation', it is not too late to eliminate them - then the timing should be more appropriate.

It should be noted that although you have ascended the throne as emperor now, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, even Huguang, Guizhou and other places have not fully grasped it yet. "

Auntie Zhu also didn't want to break up the territory south of the Yangtze River—she hurried to Nanzhili at the beginning of the year, wasn't she just to prevent the Qing army from going down to the south of the Yangtze River and destroying the south of the Yangtze River?
So he said: "Sir, don't play tricks, if there is any good way, let's talk about it quickly."

Hao Guangming smiled modestly and said, "It's not a good idea, it's just a strange move."

Then, Hao Guangming purposely leaned into Auntie Zhu's ear, and explained in detail the strange move he had thought of.

Aimee Zhu's eyes brighten the more she listens...

　First more.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)