Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 542 The situation is chaotic

"Gurgling..."

Haitang Town, Yazhou County in late August, Sanya for later generations...

In this era of the seventeenth century, the scenery here is like giant paintings, masterpieces, presented one after another in summer, burning like a raging fire under the scorching sun.

Standing barefoot on the fine sand of the beach, when the sea breeze blows, a slight coolness blows on the face with the smell of sea water.

This was the first time he had observed the scenery with his own eyes after hearing his uncle describe what the sea in southern Qiongzhou looked like in the ninth year of Tianqi.

He walked on the fine sand, the sun baked the sand hot, and the sand was covered with crabs.

The torrential and turbulent waves hit the beach, playing the most natural music, and the hot sun reflected on the blue sea, sparkling like silver trees blooming.

Zhu Ciran walked into the sea recklessly, and as the sea water covered his body, a coolness penetrated his whole body.

Compared with the beaches in other places in Guangxi and Qiongzhou, the sand here in Haitang Town is very clean, and the sea is even clearer and bluer. The coconut trees on the beach bring out the unique flavor of the beach.

Looking into the distance, the ships in the offshore are swaying on the water, which is so leisurely and enviable.

On the boat, some people who were dressed differently from Han people but looked similar to Han people were looking at Zhu Ciran and his party.

Zhu Ciran took a dip in the sea, and then walked ashore. A dozen Jinyi guards on the shore set up tents in the natural coconut grove some distance from the beach.

"Who are those people?"

When Zhu Ciran landed, Liu Shun and Zhang Xiu stepped forward to greet him, but Zhu Ciran looked curiously at the group of people living on the boat.

"It should be the Dan family living here. Your Highness doesn't need to care about them." Zhang Xiu glanced at the people on board and signaled Zhu Ciran not to care, but Zhu Ciran cared even more after hearing the words.

"Why don't you care?" Zhu Ciran asked Zhang Xiu, Zhang Xiu could only explain the origin of the Dan family to him.

In the "Ancient and Modern Classics Museum" in the Ming Dynasty, there are only traces of the origin of the Dan family in some classics from the Han and Jin dynasties.

Among the classics, the Dan family first appeared when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty fled south after destroying the Minyue Kingdom. Of course, in earlier classics, there are also records that they lived in the South China Sea.

In short, since the Han Dynasty reintroduced Guangdong and Guangxi into the territory, the Dan family lived in peace and stability. It was not until the Tang and Song Dynasties that they formed a fishing port headed by Danjia fishermen along the coast of Haifeng, and they barely settled on land.

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, due to poor management of Guangdong and Guangxi, the Dan people were often more laissez-faire. However, for a long time since the Yuan Dynasty, the Dan people were bullied by the local government.

They have no tribes, no land, and live by the sea. Although the government did not make repeated orders, the local gentry forces stipulated that the "Dan people" were not allowed to live ashore, nor to read and write, nor to intermarry with people on the shore.

Therefore, the name of "Danmin" has never been included in the roster of the imperial examination.

Not only did the gentry bully them, but the local government did not register the floating Danmin Qimin households, so they did not have household registrations in Daming.

According to some traditional customs, Dan people believe that it is inauspicious to build houses with bricks on land, and they do not want to go ashore to live, thinking that doing so will offend their ancestors and make sailing difficult.

But in fact, these traditional customs are because successive local governments felt that they were like floating population, and calculated that they could not collect taxes regularly and deliberately drove them away.

This kind of expulsion lasted for hundreds of thousands of years. Naturally, Dan people also believed that it would be a taboo to live ashore.

It's just that this taboo is not about the ancestors, but the people on the shore...

"No reason!"

Hearing what happened to the Danmin, Zhu Ciran cursed: "All the land in the world belongs to the imperial court, what right do the local gentry and the government have, otherwise the Danmin will go ashore?!"

"The country is in urgent need of employing people right now. Don't the coastal yamen know how many people have been recruited?"

"I want to report to my uncle, and let him know what happened in the south!"

After all, Zhu Ciran is still a young man. At the age of 14, he was already feeling a lot of pressure because of the burden on his shoulders and the gradually ending schedule. When he suddenly heard this kind of thing, no matter how big or small it was, he should be angry.

In his opinion, compared with the Jiaozhi people and Luchuan people, the Dan people are obviously no different from the Han people.

It is much easier to integrate the Dan family into the Han people than in other places.

Obviously on this issue, the local government still shirks each other, which is simply unreasonable.

Thinking of this, Zhu Ciran suppressed his temper and asked: "How many Dan people are there in this coastal area?"

"I'm afraid...not less than 20..." Zhang Xiu replied cautiously, which made Zhu Ciran clenched his fists.

"It's ridiculous!" He squeezed the words through his teeth, and then ordered some food to be delivered to the Dan family members on the boat, and wrote a handwritten letter in the tent himself, and asked people to send them to the city urgently. the capital.

This was the first time he spent [-] miles to expedite the trip, which is enough to show that he blamed each other on the officials in Guangdong and Guangxi, and he was unwilling to accept the grievances of the Dan family.

Many people can't understand his anger, but Zhu Youjian can understand his mood very well.

This handwritten letter arrived at the Chengyun Hall of Prince Qi's Mansion on August 23, but facing the contents of the letter, Zhu Youjian was not as excited as his eldest nephew.

"Let the Metropolitan Procuratorate send people to check, organize the Danmin Qimin in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian into households, and distribute cattle and land reclamation, one head per household."

"Slaves take orders."

After being in power for so many years, Zhu Youjian has long developed the problem of dealing with things without getting angry.

After all, he was governing the imperial court with the insects from Daming. If he had always been so easy to get angry, he would have died of anger long ago.

Right now, what he cares about is the other three memorials in his hand, and the contents of these three memorials are about Europe, the Western Regions, and India.

The first memorial about Europe was mainly sent back by the left-behind royal guards in Western Europe, but the news is already from last year.

The main content is that the 30-year war has intensified, and the scale is becoming more and more uncontrollable.

Since Gustav II failed to die in the Battle of Lützen, the Swedish army advanced all the way across the Danube and gained a firm foothold in Bavaria, while Wallenstein retreated steadily.

The defeat on the Eastern Front caused the troops of the Holy Roman Empire to be transferred to the north, which in turn affected the Western Front.

In September last year, the French army attacked the Basque Country of Spain two years in advance, and successfully occupied it, and tried to continue to send troops to the Catalonia region of Spain.

The urgency of the war forced Spain to raise taxes again, and the increase in taxes immediately aroused dissatisfaction among the Portuguese people.

As the war intensified and dragged on, Spain's high taxes made its rule increasingly unpopular in Portugal.

As poverty grew, riots erupted in Evora and the Algarve within Portugal, and the Catalan uprising also broke out four years earlier.

Seeing this, the nobles of Portugal wanted to plan a conspiracy and got the official support of Joao, Duke of Braganza.

The reason Jin Yiwei knew so well was because Joao found the Jin Yiwei who were Daming's diplomatic envoys stationed in Europe, and he asked Ming to stop importing saltpeter and commodities to Spain.

It seems that Joao is very clear that he will completely abandon the Portuguese region only if Spain loses on the frontal battlefield.

Joao's proposal was sent out in the twelfth lunar month of last year, but now it is August, eight full months have passed, and there may be some changes.

Zhu Youjian was wondering whether Daming would agree to Joao's request, and at the same time sign a treaty with Portugal on the sale of the colony.

At present, Portugal's colony includes the coastal area of ​​Brazil on the east coast of South America, and Ming has gained a firm foothold in South Kunlun.

Relying on the arable land and pastures cultivated by Portugal in the colony, Daming could completely move tens of thousands of people there to take over directly, and immediately become self-sufficient.

Of course, the premise is that Joao has to sell this part of the interest for the throne of the Portuguese king.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian wrote down his conditions with a pen.

"Da Ming can interrupt the support to Francie, and can trade with Portugal to solve the problem of Portugal's shortage of goods, but Portugal needs to give up its colonies in the New World as compensation for Daming's interruption of trade with Spain."

As time gets closer and closer to his own vassal, Zhu Youjian must also step up his attitude towards the contraction of Spanish goods.

Now for South America, Zhu Youjian can agree to Portugal's conditions, but if Spain is willing to exchange with the American colonies, such things as the treaty can be completely torn up.

After dealing with the European affairs, Zhu Youjian set his sights on the replay of Jinyiwei in the Western Regions.

With the eastward relocation of Heshuote and the northward relocation of Junggar, Lin Danhan has completely gained a foothold in the Western Regions. He used Bieshabali as his capital and launched an expedition to the Kazakh Khanate in the west.

Not to mention the occupation of the small Kazakh Yuzi in the Balkhash Lake area, Lin Dan Khan stupidly launched an attack on the Yarkant Khanate entrenched in the south of the Tianshan Mountains. The La Khanate and the Yarkand Khanate united to fight back against the attack of Lindan Khan who invaded them.

"It's still the same politics..."

Seeing Lin Danhan's political manipulation, Zhu Youjian couldn't figure out why this guy didn't even understand the simple truth of "pull one faction to fight another faction".

Did he really think that he could unify the entire Western Regions by himself and create a Western Mongolian Empire?

Zhu Youjian shook his head and put down the memorial, and finally looked at the memorial from the Sindang area of ​​India.

This memorial was sent by Lu Xiangsheng in May, and it was not delivered to Luchuan Province until August, and it was rushed to the capital today after traveling eight hundred miles.

The main content is nothing more than that the Mughal Khan Sha Jiahu (Shah Jahan) sent additional troops to fight with the Xiaoxiyang coalition forces in the rivers and mountains in the north of the Zhufan, and the battle line stretched thousands of miles.

The reason why Lu Xiangsheng ascended the Shu was relatively simple, that is, he hoped that Ming Dynasty could send troops from the Demasa area to the north of the Ganges River to contain the Mughal troops in the northeast.

This request is not difficult. After Zhu Youjian made the memorial popular, he wrote down an order for Hong Chengchou to send troops to contain the Mughal forces in the northeast.

After doing all this, he focused on the livelihood of the people in the country.

The mountains of memorials on the table were all sent by people from Zhejiang, Nanzhili, and northern provinces.

The content is also very simple, that is, begging for "exemption" and "stabilization of food prices".

Since April, the southern Zhili and Zhejiang areas have suffered from drought as in history. Although the water supply will not be cut off, nor will it be as dry as the north, but the reduction in grain production is a sure thing.

Since the beginning of summer, paddy fields have become irrigated land, and irrigated land has become dry land. Although the dry land can barely be planted with the Jiangnan water network, the yield is inevitably declining.

In July, the price of rice per stone in Nanzhili soared from [-] to [-] to [-], and the people complained.

After entering August, many dry lands in Zhejiang failed to harvest. Zhejiang party officials headed by Shi Fenglai, Feng Quan and others went to the village to beg for exemption, and asked for exemption for three years to stabilize grain prices.

Nanchang and Jiujiang areas in the north of Jiangxi Province, as well as Fujian and Guangdong areas have also encountered droughts with water levels falling, and rice prices have continued to rise for a while...

This is the case in the south, and it is not easy in the north.

The people in Shanxi were on the verge of relocation, but the severe drought still persisted, and Henan couldn't stand the drought even more. Many people sold their fields one after another, and took the iron rolls issued by the government to migrate to the northeast by train.

At this moment, if Zhu Youjian walked out of the capital, he could see that the four train stations in the east, west, north, and south of the capital were crowded with relocated northern people, especially along the railway.

Although the situation is not as serious as the 14th year of Tianqi, it is enough to show the extent of the drought.

The most notable point is the price of rice.

Due to the drought in the south of the Yangtze River, grains from Sichuan, Guizhou, and Huguang, which were transported by the Yangtze River, began to be purchased at high prices by the people after they entered Jiangxi.

As a result of the panic-buying of grain by merchants and people in Jiangxi, Nanzhili, and Zhejiang provinces, the grain that was originally going to flow into the north through the canal was bought by them one after another, so that the price of grain in the north rose sharply.

On August 22, the prices at Caishikou in Beijing this morning increased by more than [-]% compared to April.

The price of rice has risen from [-] Wen per catty to [-] Wen per catty, and that of wheat has risen from [-] Wen per catty to [-] Wen per catty.

Prices of other grains and feed ingredients such as barley, buckwheat, green beans, bran, and bran have risen by [-] to [-] percent.

This is true of grains, not to mention meat. Due to the rise in the price of feed raw materials, the price of feed has risen from 280 to [-] per stone.

The rise in feed has led to an increase of about [-]% in the prices of chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, cattle, sheep and other livestock.

Beef, which had been reduced to fifteen cents a catty, suddenly rose to twenty cents, returning to the price in the first year of the apocalypse.

The price of water chicken at six yuan has also risen to eight yuan at present, let alone pork, which has risen from eighteen yuan to twenty-six yuan, the highest increase.

These rises in meat prices have also led to higher prices for fish and shrimp.

Fish and shrimp that originally cost three renminbi a catty have now risen to five renminbi. Fortunately, the fishery industry is so large that it can barely be suppressed.

As for the price of vegetables, it has also risen by [-] to [-] percent, but overall it is still controllable.

The purchasing power of the three provinces in the south of the Yangtze River appeared at a time when it shouldn't have appeared, and their frantic grabbing led to a soaring price increase in Beizhili.

This is the case in Beizhili, which is close to the sea, and it goes without saying that Shanxi and Henan are inland next to it.

As of the ninth day of August, the price of rice in Shanxi was twelve renminbi per catty, or one tael and eight renminbi per shi, and in Henan it was ten renminbi per catty, or one liang and five renminbi per shi.

Shanxi, on the other hand, benefited from the construction of the most difficult section of the railway from Baoji, Shaanxi to Guangyuan, Sichuan. Grain was purchased on both sides of the Jialing River in Sichuan, and went north along the Jialing River to Guangyuan, and then the grain was transported by train to the Guanzhong area.

As the place where the price of rice soared the most in the late Ming Dynasty, in the ninth year of Chongzhen in history, the rice in Shaanxi was worth five coins per bucket, equivalent to five taels per stone.

However, at the moment, the price of rice in Shaanxi is 66 Wen per bucket and 660 Wen per stone.

The price of rice in Shaanxi is still the same, let alone that in Hexi, which is stable at about [-] yuan per stone thanks to the input from Sichuan.

The two provinces that were originally the most turbulent have been settled down. For Zhu Youjian, the situation is under control.

"Your Highness, the Changping warehouses in the three provinces in the south of the Yangtze River have already stockpiled more than [-] million shi of rice. Is it possible to release some of it? In addition, should we also arrange to save money?"

In the hall, when a strange voice sounded, Zhu Youjian also looked up at the person in front of him.

Wen Tiren, this person in late Ming history has been standing in the Chengyun Hall for half an hour, and what he wants is nothing more than to ask the court to open a warehouse to release grain, so as to stabilize the grain price in the south of the Yangtze River.

Needless to say, Zhu Youjian knew what to do about this matter. The reason why he didn't open the warehouse to release the grain at the beginning was because he was worried that the grain in the Changping warehouse would not be stable enough.

The stabilization that has been delayed for several months will allow many grain merchants to ship all the grain from all over the country to Jiangnan while learning about the sharp rise in grain prices in the south of the Yangtze River.

As long as they take action and have bought the grain, Zhu Youjian can open the warehouse to release the grain.

"Have all the local grain merchants moved?" Zhu Youjian ignored Feng Quan, turned around and asked about Lu Wenzhao, Cao Huachun, and Wang Chengen.

"Return to Your Highness..." Cao Huachun bowed and replied:
"It's all in motion. Many grain merchants have even traveled far to Sichuan, Huguang, and Guangdong to sign contracts with local farmers to purchase grain in autumn."

"The deed is signed by government officials, and the grain merchants can only abide by it."

"What about the price? How much does it take to not hurt them?" Zhu Youjian took a sip of a cup of herbal tea, and Cao Huachun also responded respectfully:

"It varies slightly from place to place, but generally speaking, the price of rice in the south of the Yangtze River is more suitable at the price of [-] Wen."

After Cao Huachun finished speaking, Feng Quan immediately looked at Zhu Youjian, but when Zhu Youjian looked at him, he quickly lowered his head.

The soaring price of rice in the south of the Yangtze River directly affected many gentry and small and medium landlords in the south of the Yangtze River.

In this case, exempting ten and one of the land taxes would make them a lot easier, so they naturally wanted to push the officials in the court to speak for them.

"Immunity is fine, but three years is too long."

Zhu Youjian put down his teacup, and glanced at Feng Quan: "National imperial courts are often exempted from disasters in one place for one year, then in the next year, and then again."

"I have exempted the land tax of the three provinces in the south of the Yangtze River for three years in one go. Doesn't Feng Shilang know how much land tax and grain he will be exempted?"

"This... the lower officials know, but Jiangnan is different from other places." After all, there is something to ask for, so Feng Quan naturally couldn't get angry.

In fact, at this juncture, all of them want to get over there honestly, and wait for Zhu Youjian to become a vassal, and then stand up and feel proud.

But the problem is that the drought in the south of the Yangtze River is beyond their expectation, and they have to stand up and share the pressure of the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River.

Beg to avoid it, it is inevitable.

"Jiangnan is no different..." Zhu Youjian snorted lightly:
"In terms of land tax and grain, Jiangnan is not as good as the three provinces of "Lujiujiao", and in terms of taxes, Jiangnan is not as good as the four provinces of mountains and rivers."

"None of the four provinces has been exempted for three years in one go. How can Jiangnan be able to?"

Zhu Youjian has not fully exploited the taxation potential of Jiangnan, especially in terms of population.

The reason why it was not mined out is that the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River privately hid the tenants.

It’s nothing to hide tenants privately. In the feudal era, except for the prosperity and governance of the 80 years before the founding of the country, the tenants under the gentry’s powerful command were the most stable group of people, especially after Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated that the tenants and employers were equal. Unprecedented stability.

But the problem is that the current Ming Dynasty wants to enter industrialization, even if it is semi-industrial and semi-agricultural, the gentry and powerful will not be allowed to hide their tenants.

It is Zhu Yuanzhang's business that Zhu Yuanzhang does not count tenants, but Zhu Youjian wants to count, because the national policy is different, and the system and policy are different.

Now he wants to make statistics, and the gentry in Jiangnan is blocking him, and he wants him to show Jiangnan a good face. It is fine if Zhu Youjian doesn't treat the gentry in Jiangnan across the board.

"There are more than 5000 million people in the south of the Yangtze River, so let's release [-] million shichangping food, and as for the exemption, it will be enough for one year."

Zhu Youjian deliberately stimulated Feng Quan with the words on paper, how could Feng Quan not understand?

In his opinion, Zhu Youjian completely blamed them for being vague about Jiangnan Qimin's account registration, so he said so on purpose.

"In Jiangnan, the current population is no longer the previous 600 million, but 6000 million..."

"Your Highness, can all the Changping food be released?"

With Zhu Youjian's words, Feng Quan had to ask the landlords in the three provinces in the south of the Yangtze River to hand over nearly 400 million tenants.

He has no choice. If the tenants are not handed over, then the exemption policy and Changping grain will not be released. Not to mention the exemption will allow the gentry to exempt tens of millions of stone fields. If the Changping grain is not released, it is inevitable that the tenants will leave .

The tenants in the hands of many gentry have only one to two acres of arable land, and the price of grain cannot be lowered. With the production of the land, the tenants cannot eat enough at all, so they can only leave and move to places where they can support themselves.

It is impossible for the gentry to buy grain for the tenants to eat, and it is impossible for the gentry to say that they will not collect the land rent with a slap on the head.

In the final analysis, once the grain was sold at the price of [-] cents a shi, and the land rent plus the exemption, they could make a profit of thousands or even tens of thousands, tens of thousands of taels of silver.

Use your own money to save the tenants. If they are willing, then the feudal society will not be complained about eating "human blood steamed buns".

Instead of watching the tenants leave, it is better to release them in exchange for benefits.

Thinking of this, Feng Quan had a toothache, and Zhu Youjian replied lightly: "I didn't expect the Ministry of Households to find out so many household registrations in the three provinces..."

"Forget it, release 8000 million shi of grain from the Changping warehouse, and save the three provinces for one year. That's it."

"The servants take orders..."

Zhu Youjian spoke, and Wang Chengen agreed, leaving no room for Feng Quan to bargain.

Faced with Zhu Youjian's attitude, Feng Quan also knew that it was impossible to avoid two or three years, so he could only accept it as soon as it was good, so as not to anger Zhu Youjian.

"Since that's the case, I'm going to notify the Ministry of Accounts now."

After finishing speaking, Feng Quan returned the salute respectfully, and then withdrew from the Chengyun Hall.

As for Zhu Youjian, he glanced at the mountains of memorials, raised his hand and rubbed his brow...

　Afternoon update around six o'clock
　　
　
(End of this chapter)