Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 531 State affairs are difficult
"Jiyoushuo in the seventh month of autumn, Shangshu, the magistrate of Linxian County, Shanxi Province, said that there will be a big hailstorm for three days, and the seeds will be more than two feet, as big as goose eggs, and they will hurt the crops. Please beg for forgiveness."

"In [-], Pinggu and Zunhua counties went to the scavenging together. It was said that the two counties encountered locusts, and the whole county would have no harvest. Please beg for forgiveness."

"August Wubingxu, Jiangxi flooded, Nanchang, Jiujiang, and Nankang affected more than [-] people, Jiangxi begged to be spared."

"Jiashen in August, Henan..."

In late August, as the autumn harvest was approaching, it seemed that even God was against Daming. More than ten prefectures and counties suffered successive disasters, which made the already bad situation of Daming even worse.

Fortunately, there are only less than ten days before the autumn harvest, so after listening to the begging from various provinces and counties, Zhu Youjian nodded slightly: "All should be answered."

Sitting in the side hall of the Chengyun Hall, Zhu Youjian gave Bi Ziyan this order, and after the order was finished, he explained: "The Ministry of Household Affairs, Jinyiwei, and Dongchang Divisions sent people to check whether it is true."

"Your official obeys..." Bi Ziyan bowed in response, and Zhu Youjian continued to ask:
"There are only ten days until the autumn harvest. The Ministry of Households estimates how much land tax can be harvested this year."

"Department of household..." Seeing Zhu Youjian's inquiry, Bi Ziyan thought for a moment, and then gave an estimate:
"Although the south has experienced floods, dragon hangs, floods, and drought this year, fortunately, the disasters are only partial."

"Huguang, which is heavily grain-heavy, was not affected by the disaster. Although the people of Sichuan in eastern Sichuan have also encountered drought, the scale is not large. Except for six counties that need to be exempted, other prefectures and counties in Sichuan can pay taxes normally."

"Therefore, the Ministry of Households estimates that the land tax and grain that the country can collect this year is about [-] million shi, which is much better than the situation in the previous two years."

Bi Ziyan made an evaluation of this year's drought, that is, the scale is large but the power is insufficient.

Compared with the terrible drought in the past two years, this year's drought is a little ordinary. At least God has given him a face, and it has rained a few times in the dry areas before autumn.

"How many of the 500 million stone fields can be transferred to the disaster area?"

After learning about the scale of Tian Fuliang, Zhu Youjian sat on a chair, ate "sushan" with a spoon to cool down, and looked at Bi Ziyan with radiance.

Facing the pressure brought by Zhu Youjian, Bi Ziyan bowed neither humble nor overbearing:

"Currently, although Guochao has [-] railways, the prefectural and county sections that can be opened to traffic only account for one-third of Guochao's territory."

"The Beijing-Liaoning Railway should be completed by the end of the year. At the same time, the Liaomo Railway and the Liaobei Railway have been repaired to Yidonghe City (Changchun), which means that the northern border of Guochao already has a preliminary railway linking the three provinces of Liaodong, Modong and Donghai. .”

"However, the three provinces are still not self-sufficient at the moment, and they can't provide much help to the country."

"As for the Beijing-West Railway, the Jingjia Railway, and the Jinglong Railway, they will reach Ningxia, Gongchang, and Hanzhong respectively."

"This road connects the three northwestern provinces of Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Hexi except Beizhili."

"The three provinces are all suffering from drought. According to the situation last year, Hexi should be the only province that can have a surplus of land and grain, but the scale will not be very large, only about two million shi."

"Fortunately, Southwest Hong Gechen managed it properly. As early as the ninth year of Tianqi, he started to build the Jinglong Railway from Kunming. Therefore, the Jinglong Railway in Yunnan has reached Longchuan in the west and the border between Yunnan and Sichuan in the north."

"In addition, the railway in Luchuan has been built from Longchuan to West Seaport. If you want to go by land, the grain in Luchuan Dajinsha River Plain can be transported to Longchuan by railway, and then transported to Yongchang by oxen and horse carts, and transported by Yongchang Railway. After arriving in the Yangtze River, change to the Yangtze River water transport, transport the grain to the south of the Yangtze River, and go north by sea.”

"This road will take about two months, and the fire consumption will be about [-]%."

"If you think it's too much, you can go directly to the sea to transport the grain from the Dajinsha River Plain to the West Seaport, and ship it back to Daming from the West Seaport."

"In this way, Luchuan's grain can be delivered to Ningbo, Zhejiang within about one and a half months."

"In the case of Cochin and Old Port, it is the most cost-effective to ship by sea."

"According to the report of the Chief Secretary of the four provinces of Yunnan, Luchuan, Jiaozhi, and Old Port, the four provinces can produce at least 4000 million stones of rice and wheat this year. There are about 9000 million stones that the province can support the country."

Bi Ziyan told half of the situation, but even if he only told half of it, most of the stone in Zhu Youjian's heart fell to the ground.

Without affecting prices in the province, the four provinces can provide 9000 million shimimai to support Daming, and these ricemai alone can save at least 2000 million people.

"The Beijing-Hangzhou Railway and the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway have been repaired to Huguang Wuchang, Nanzhili and Zhouzhou respectively."

"The grain from Huguang and Nanzhili can also be sent to Kaifeng by railway, and then transferred to Shaanxi and Shanxi by oxen and horse carts from Kaifeng."

"Although Nanzhili has encountered drought, the situation is probably not bad this year. It can be self-sufficient and does not need the support of the court."

"As for the grain from Sichuan and Huguang, you can take the Xiangjiang River, Jialing River, Tuojiang River, Minjiang River, Baima River and other tributaries of the Yangtze River to transport the grain to Wuchang, Huguang, and take the railway to Kaifeng."

"Sichuan and Huguang can probably support the local area with 700 million shi without raising prices."

"The last situation in the provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Shandong, Yingzhou and Ryukyu Prefecture..."

While talking, Bi Ziyan suddenly hesitated. After a few seconds, he glanced at Zhu Youjian, and then continued:

"Zhejiang is already short of food. According to the records of Huangdian, the annual food shortage in Zhejiang is as high as 7000 million shi."

"Although Jiangxi can be self-sufficient, it may need to adjust 3000 million shi to stabilize local food prices due to the disaster this year."

"Right now, Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Ryukyu, Shandong, and Yingzhou can only provide 6000 million shi."

"Including the people's grain in Northern Zhili and Henan, in general, the people's grain that can be mobilized by the state is about 500 million shi, and the land tax is [-] million shi."

"But the fire consumption on the road is about 3000%, and only [-] million shi can be transferred to the local area."

"In the case of satisfying the land in the south of the Yangtze River first, Guochao needs to allocate 3000 million stones to Jiangxi and Zhejiang, so there are still [-] million stones available..."

After Bi Ziyan finished speaking, the entire carrier hall was silent, and Zhu Youjian ate "Sushan" in silence, without saying a word.

The previous good mood disappeared after the food shortage in Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces appeared.

Looking at Zhu Youjian's appearance, Bi Ziyan didn't know why Zhu Youjian was in a bad mood, so he couldn't help comforting him: "Your Highness, [-] million stones is already a lot."

"This year, the four northeastern provinces only need 2000 million shi to stabilize grain, and Shanxi, Henan, and Shaanxi only need 5000 million shi to stabilize grain."

"It is a blessing that there is still 3000 million stones away from the limit of the country's national power..."

Bi Ziyan talked about the situation in Daming in his own eyes, not only him, but even Wang Chengen and Cao Huachun, who were handling government affairs in the corner, also felt that the situation was good.

But the problem is that they only see the present, while Zhu Youjian sees the future.

He was thinking, if a drought broke out in the three provinces in the south of the Yangtze River, and the fields except paddy fields had no output, what a huge food gap Da Ming would have to face.

According to the 400 million people in the three provinces counted by the yellow book, even if these people have fish, shrimp and meat, they still need to eat at least three stones of grain throughout the year.

Calculated in this way, the three provinces have to eat at least 3000 million shi rice and wheat, and the paddy fields in the three provinces are only less than 5000 million mu. Even if the yield of two shi per mu can only provide 3000 million shi, there are still [-] million shi. The Gap of Thousand Stones.

If this batch of grain was transported from outside, including the fire consumption, the gap could reach 6000, or even [-] shi.

Looking at it this way, Zhu Youjian is not surprised that the drought in the north has subsided slightly in history, but farmers still have no food.

While the drought in the north has subsided, the drought in the south has intensified, and the population of the three provinces accounts for nearly half of the population of Ming Dynasty. If the three provinces cannot supply food, they can only eat food from Sichuan, Huguang, Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian.

The food from these provinces was supposed to be sent to the north to stabilize the price of food, but now they are all eaten up, so the people in the north will naturally have to go hungry.

The people in the south of the Yangtze River have money, and they can buy grain without any scruples. As long as they are hungry, the price of grain in the entire Ming Dynasty will rise.

Faced with such a large population, even if Zhu Youjian wanted to move, he was actually powerless.

According to the migration grain, ten stones per person, and at least ten acres of land per person, if you want to move the population of the three provinces, even if only half of the population is moved, Zhu Youjian will have to spend nearly [-] million mu of cultivated land and [-] million stones of rice and wheat.

When the arable land in the world does not exceed 30 billion mu, where did Zhu Youjian go to grab the [-] million mu of arable land?

It is good to use mechanical development, but time does not allow Zhu Youjian to do so.

Next year... Next year, the Jiangnan area south of the Yangtze River will become the hardest-hit area of ​​drought.

Historically, the price of rice in the three provinces of the south of the Yangtze River once rose to [-] yuan per stone, which shows the severity of the drought.

In the Chongzhen Dynasty in history, it was not that Jiangnan refused to send money and food to Beijing, but that Jiangnan was either flooded or flooded, and it was impossible to spend much money to support the north.

This is not difficult to see from the fact that Zhang Xianzhong and others fought to Fengyang, but turned around and ran to Henan, Huguang, Sichuan, and Shaanxi.

Disasters continued in the north, and the south was not much better. Only Huguang, Sichuan, and Henan were still relatively prosperous, so Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng had been wandering in these provinces, even if they had the opportunity to go to Jiangnan.

It wasn't until the end of the severe drought in Chongzhen's 17th year that Li Zicheng was ready to attack Nanjing, but Azig led troops to catch up and defeat him.

The situation in Jiangnan is so bad that Zhu Youjian doesn't know how to start this place.

What's more, if he remembers correctly, while the south of the Yangtze River is suffering from drought, the north is also suffering from drought, and the intensity is even worse than this year.

Under such circumstances, Zhu Youjian has given up his plan to feed the people. As long as they can keep them alive, it is already the best arrangement Zhu Youjian can make.

Therefore, at the same time that "Sushan" bottomed out, Zhu Youjian also put down his spoon, looked up at Bi Ziyan, and said:
"Although there is enough food this year, we must prevent problems before they happen."

"There is nothing we can do about the rise in food prices. According to my decree, adjust Sichuan, Huguang, Hexi, Beizhili, Shandong's civilian grain, and official grain to stabilize Shaanxi and Shanxi."

"Yingzhou, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Ryukyu prefectures have civilian and official food to stabilize the four northeastern provinces."

"All grain and fodder from Luchuan, Jiugang, Fujian, and Jiaozhi were transferred to Jiangxi and Zhejiang."

"If there is a gap, there will be a gap. In short, things should be arranged in this way."

In Zhu Youjian's words, the rise in grain prices in Zhejiang and Jiangxi has become a foregone conclusion, because the gap between the two provinces is 3000 million shi, and Zhu Youjian only adjusted less than 2000 million shi.

Counting the fire consumption on the road, it is only [-] million shi that can reach the two provinces.

If 2000 million shi of grain is lost, there will be a gap of 2000 million shi more, and the 5000 million people in Jiangxi and Zhejiang will reduce their annual rations by 62 catties.

Faced with this situation, it is certain that food prices in the two provinces will rise.

But in the north, Zhu Youjian mobilized all the rest of the grain in one go, and the scale of the shipment could reach 3000 million shi.

While satisfying the 2000 million gap in the four northeastern provinces, there are still nearly 1000 million stones for the 700 million people in Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Henan to eat.

Even if they don't do anything, the food is enough for them to eat for two years, not to mention that their province can meet most of their rations this year.

Therefore, this batch of grain is enough for the people of the three provinces to eat for more than two years, and Zhu Youjian did this in the final analysis to prepare for the severe drought in the south of the Yangtze River next year.

Under the condition that the three provinces have enough food, next year the Ming Dynasty can transport grain to the south of the Yangtze River to stabilize food prices in all provinces except the three provinces.

The increase in grain prices in the south of the Yangtze River this year is for the survival of the people in the south of the Yangtze River next year.

In the eyes of Bi Ziyan and others, there is nothing wrong with this, because in recent years, the drought has been in the north, and there is no harm in storing more grain in the north.

"Immigration matters must be continuously intensified, and the Ministry of Household Affairs should not be lazy."

Zhu Youjian pushed the empty Sushan aside, Wang Chengen got up and came to clean up when he saw this, and Bi Ziyan also bowed back, expressing his understanding.

"After the release of Tianqi Tongbao, how much has the fire consumption of the local government office been reduced?"

Zhu Youjian leaned on his chair and examined Bi Ziyan. Bi Ziyan was not timid either. He bowed respectfully and replied: "Compared to before, the fire consumption has been reduced by about [-]%. The new currency is indeed beneficial for tax collection."

The denomination of new coins saves the step of smelting into official silver, which naturally reduces the chance of local yamen stealing.

Although there are still some loose silver that are operable, with the continuous issuance of new coins, this phenomenon of stealing and stealing will be gradually eliminated.

But this is only temporary. For officials who want to be corrupt, they can think of countless ways to deal with the court. For this, Zhu Youjian can only check the gaps and make up for the gaps.

"Your Highness, Yuan Cifu's son went to the lower officials this morning, saying that Yuan Cifu's illness was difficult to recover, and he asked to be resigned."

Zhu Youjian was still thinking about checking for deficiencies and making up for leaks, but Bi Ziyan's words brought him back to reality.

Yuan Keli is about to retire... This did not exceed Zhu Youjian's expectations.

People are different. Although they are all in their 60s, Yuan Keli only lived to the sixth year of Chongzhen in history, which is the 13th year of Tianqi.

It has been 15 years since Tianqi, if Zhu Youjian let Yuan Keli go home to recuperate, maybe he can live for two more years, such as Zhao Nanxing and Ye Xianggao now.

If he insists on letting Yuan Keli serve as a cabinet minister and continue to work hard, I am afraid that Yuan Keli's end will be in these two years.

Therefore, instead of being harsh on Yuan Keli, Zhu Youjian turned his head and said to Wang Chengen who was cleaning up:
"Xiang Wansui, approved Yuan Cifu's official appointment, and granted him the title of Uncle Suiyang, Crown Prince and Grand Tutor."

Without waiting for Wang Chengen to respond, Zhu Youjian looked at Bi Ziyan again: "From now on, you will serve as the second assistant to the cabinet."

"The position of the cabinet minister was vacated..." Bi Ziyan was not surprised that he became the second assistant. The only thing that surprised him was Zhu Youjian's appointment of Yuan Keli.

But when he thought that Yuan Keli led the army and put down Xu Hongru's rebellion together with Zhu Youjian, he didn't find it strange.

What he wanted to ask was who would give the vacated cabinet minister position.

"Let's leave it empty for the time being. As for the position of Minister of the Ministry of Officials..." Zhu Youjian pondered for a moment, but no suitable candidate appeared in his mind.

"Fan Jingwen was transferred to take over as the chief envoy of Sichuan, and Li Banghua was transferred to the cabinet as Minister of the Ministry of Officials."

After all, there is no one in the Donglin Party, and Sun Chengzong cannot support himself alone, so Zhu Youjian can only transfer Li Banghua to the capital.

Fortunately, the new policy in Sichuan has been settled, and the transfer of Fan Jingwen will not affect anything.

"The next official takes orders..." Bi Ziyan bowed in response when he saw this, turned around and was about to leave, but Zhu Youjian didn't stop him, but after he watched and left, he turned his head and told Wang Chengen:
"Let Yang Wenyue speed up the immigration to Yingzhou."

"Your maidservant takes orders..." Wang Chengen knew in his heart that His Royal Highness probably wanted Yang Wenyue to join the cabinet, so he urged him.

However, Wang Chengen also understands that under the current situation, it is not easy for Yingzhou to speed up immigration to the border. Unless there is a drought in the coastal provinces, there will not be so many people willing to go overseas.

Thinking of this, Wang Chengen packed up his things and left, and Zhu Youjian also picked up a memorial from the Ministry of Officials.

There are more than a dozen memorials from the Ministry of Officials. From the ranking of official positions down, they are basically transfers and promotions.

It took Zhu Youjian a quarter of an hour to read most of them. When the last memorial was opened, the official positions that appeared on it had become mayor and village official.

Zhu Youjian originally intended to skip it at random, and then mark it popular, but he saw a familiar name in this memorial, and he ranked first.

[Zhen'an Town, Longmen County, Kaiping Prefecture, Modong Province, Sun Kewang, the mayor of Zhengjiupin Township, is well-governed. The number of households in Zhen'an Town has increased by three hundred a year, and two taels of silver are rewarded]

"Sun Kewang..." Zhu Youjian squinted his eyes. He remembered that Sun Kewang's original name was Sun Kewang, but the one who appeared in front of him was not Sun Kewang, but Sun Kewang.

So is this person Sun Kewang in history, or just the same name and surname?

"Bring me the documents of Zhen'an Mayor Sun Kewang."

Zhu Youjian gave instructions to the Jin Yiwei at the door, and when he heard that the Jin Yiwei bowed back, he immediately went to work.

Zhu Youjian put the memorial aside and did not deal with it. After half an hour, the Jin Yiwei returned to Qi Wang's mansion with Sun Kewang's documents.

After handing the document to Zhu Youjian with both hands, he bowed and retreated to the door, and Zhu Youjian opened the document.

Just by looking at it, he was basically sure that this Sun Kewang was the Sun Kewang in his heart.

His management of Baishui Village in Jiuyuan County is very good, and he is considered to be among the best among the tens of thousands of villages in Guochao.

However, after he left, the two village officials of Baishui Village did not make Baishui Village rank among the best as before, but became ordinary.

He took the Enke exam last year, and he got the post of mayor of Zhen'an Town because of his good grades.

Zhu Youjian did not directly promote him to be a high-ranking official. Instead, he used a red pen to remark behind the reward of two taels of silver: "Observe his talents, if he is still good, he will be transferred to Longmen County."

After finishing writing, Zhu Youjian closed the memorial and continued to deal with other memorials.

Sun Kewang's talents are good. In just a few months, he stabilized Yunnan, where the people's livelihood was exhausted and the refugees were everywhere.

Even in later generations, the population and economy of Yunnan could not be compared with that of the mainland, especially in the late Ming Dynasty.

However, under Sun Kewang's governance, Yunnan suddenly became one of the regions with the best economy in the late Ming Dynasty.

In the hands of Mu Tianbo, Yunnan can only raise 20 soldiers, but in the hands of Sun Kewang, it has become a rich land where "[-] soldiers can be raised and the people live and work in peace and contentment".

With only one place in Yunnan, Sun Kewang can raise 20 troops, and at the same time support the military supply of the northern and western front lines.

Even the Qing army, which owned the world, would run out of food, but the Ming army did not.

This ability to farm is exactly what Zhu Youjian needs right now.

However, even if it is a talent, Zhu Youjian has to think twice before deciding whether to reuse him.

Fortunately, although a person like Sun Kewang is dangerous, his military ability is obviously not very good.

If this shortcoming is still there, then Zhu Youjian can make good use of him.

What he was most worried about was that Sun Kewang had studied Yanshan textbooks, and in the end he was proficient in everything from literature to martial arts, and his ambition remained undiminished.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian was a little worried, but then he smiled again.

Sun Kewang in history was not Li Dingguo's opponent, let alone now that Ming Dynasty is in full swing?

At his age, it might be possible to beat Sun Chuanting and others away, but it's just a dream to kill Li Dingguo, Zhu Ciran and others.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian also began to put his mind on governing Daming.

Daming has never lacked a thousand-mile horse, but only Bole.

Although most of the figures in history have outstanding abilities, there are still many talents who are submerged in the long river of history waiting for him to reuse.

During the years of the rise of the official school, Cheng De, Li Demao, Zhang Maocai, Cao Meng and others have fully demonstrated that as long as there is an opportunity, the Ming Dynasty has no shortage of capable ministers and generals.

(End of this chapter)