Brother Zhu Youxiao

"Jingle Bell--"

"Don't squeeze, don't squeeze!"

In March, the news about Yiling was quickly spread by all the officials. For this reason, many small and medium-sized gentry whose family property was easy to cash out began to sell their property to Huangdian in order to raise enough money and food to move.

When it comes to relocation, the gentry from all over the world chose different places.

For these powerful gentry in the central and western provinces, they are not worried about being relocated at all, because the main target of Ming's migration population is the central and western provinces.

They are even less afraid of the powerful gentry in Beizhili, after all, they grew up in Beizhili.

Those who resist the relocation are mainly the seven provinces of Huguang, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Nanzhili, Henan, Shandong, Fujian, and Jiangxi.

For this reason, the migration direction they choose is also different.

The migration direction of Shandong and Henan is mainly Anxi, Beiting, Modong, Donghai and other provinces. After all, there is no miasma in these places. Although it is cold, with the money in hand, they can also hire people to help them cultivate a lot of land.

The relocation targets of Huguang are mainly Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou.

The remaining provinces such as Nanzhili, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Zhejiang all chose Nanzhou and Jiaozhi in the south.

Even they are afraid of the miasma in the southwest.

They would rather go to distant Nanzhou and Yingzhou than Jiugang and Luchuan. Although Jiaozhi is also within the scope of choice, relatively few people go there.

"Our master has chartered this boat!"

"How can there be a reason to charter a boat?!"

"My master has money! Charter a boat if you like!"

In just one month, the turmoil began to ferment, and the ships in the southeast were rented and sold out.

Tens of thousands of country gentry migrated to Nanzhou and Yingzhou, but because of their big business, the migration often required a family to rent a large ship.

The boats that could transport thousands of people were instantly chartered and rented by the country gentry. Faced with such a situation, many people who simply wanted to move could only be left behind.

Since the government will stop emigrating in June, people who don't want to emigrate in debt can only choose the more distant Qi State, because Qi State at least has boats to sit on.

This kind of turmoil has no feeling of stopping, but is intensifying.

The relocation of the powerful gentry caused the unexplained tenants and common people to panic, and they also began to scramble for ships.

Many gentry yelled at them when they saw it, thinking that this group of idiots were so stupid, and scolded them for delaying their escape.

But scolding, scolding, did not affect their actions of scrambling for ships and fleeing overseas...

"In just two months, Huangdian has received more than 180 million acres of listings, and the immigrant population has exceeded [-] million. This is indeed..."

On the third day of May, when Hong Chengchou, who was sitting in the Chengyun Hall of Prince Qi's Mansion, didn't know what to say, Zhu Youjian, who was sitting in the upper seat, blew on the tea in front of him, took a sip, and said unhurriedly:
"Escape well. If they want to escape, let them escape. It is impossible for the imperial court to kill so many people."

"They all escaped, and the people who stayed in the Central Plains will have a better life."

Zhu Youjian's words made Hong Chengchou nod his head slightly, but he immediately raised his head and said:

"Recently, most Yanshan officials have become more cautious in their actions. It seems that they were frightened by His Highness's move."

"However, if the two sixteen million acres of land are purchased at a normal price, the Huangdian will at least get no less than 5000 million taels of silver."

"Huangdian, can you get it out?" Hong Chengchou asked cautiously, and Zhu Youjian also looked at Cao Huachun after hearing the words.

Cao Huachun shook his head, apparently unable to eat the big piece of cake spit out by the gentry.

Hong Chengchou also saw his expression and actions, so he couldn't help but put down the memorial in his hand, and bowed to Zhu Youjian:
"Your Highness, these acres are less than one-tenth of the land in the hands of the gentry. Right now, the gentry is selling it like this, and the government wants state ownership, so they can't sell the land to the people, they can only divide the land."

"Such a large sum of money, even with the addition of the bank, I'm afraid it will be difficult to get it together."

"The lower official's suggestion is that perhaps the land in Nanzhou, Anxi and other places can be leased and sold to the relocated gentry, and the land can be exchanged for land?"

Hong Chengchou's idea is based on what he has seen about the land in Luchuan. Compared with the original two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty, most of the land has been fully developed, and the land overseas and the three central and southern provinces are basically undeveloped.

In this case, it is better to hand over the land to the gentry for development.

However, Zhu Youjian did not approve of this, and was still planning to make deals with the gentry in accordance with the system of state ownership of land.

"It doesn't have to be..."

Zhu Youjian put down the teacup, and then said:
"How much land the gentry can reclaim belongs to the imperial court. The gentry has the right to use it, but not the right to sell it."

"However, the imperial court can exchange labor camp workers for them to be tenants."

"There are currently 54 reformed-through-labor workers in Nanzhou, and 160 million in Jiugang. Including Luchuan and Jiaozhi, there are a total of 500 million reformed-through-labor workers in these places."

"Give it to them at the price of one mu of land per person, and exchange the rest of the imperial store with cattle and horses."

"One ox has three acres of land, and one draft horse has two acres of land."

The price Zhu Youjian used was the price of cattle, horses and livestock in the south of the Yangtze River. According to this price, if Daming pays some more money, he should be able to win this batch of fields.

"How much gold and silver are there overseas this year?" Zhu Youjian asked Cao Huachun, and Cao Huachun bowed to him when he heard the words:

"About 12 taels of gold, 670 taels of silver, and copper ingots worth 60 taels of silver."

Nearly 400 million taels of gold and silver poured into Daming overseas every year, of which 800 million taels were mined by themselves, and the remaining 600 million taels were trade income.

Judging from the current population situation of Ming Dynasty, such input cannot cause inflation in a short period of time.

"There are more than [-] million people in the country this year, and this amount of money should not affect it."

"How much money does the imperial store have? Where is the bank?"

Zhu Youjian continued to ask, Cao Huachun needed to check some documents.

After a few minutes, Cao Huachun came back from the table where the files were placed, and bowed to Zhu Youjian and Hong Chengchou:
"Returning to Your Highness, the total is 5000 million taels, the bank deposit is more than 8000 million taels, and the imperial store's grain sales are 3000 million taels. However, after deducting expenses, the profit is about [-] million taels."

Zhu Ciran's new policies have caused grain prices to soar. As the largest organization in charge of grain trade, it goes without saying that Huangdian has made profits.

From this point of view, Daming still has a lot of money at his disposal.

"Your Highness..." When Zhu Youjian was thinking this way, Hong Chengchou bowed suddenly and said:

"This year there are droughts all over the country. Not to mention the three provinces in the south of the Yangtze River, Huguang, Sichuan, Guangxi, and Guizhou have all been affected."

"In addition, places within the Great Wall and the Yellow River in the north are also suffering from drought. Except for the four provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, Yunnan, and Sichuan, the original two capitals and thirteen provinces have experienced drought."

"Under such circumstances, is it necessary to open regular positions to stabilize food prices?"

There are still more than 3000 million stone grains in the Changping warehouse. This is what Hong Chengchou found out after he arrived in the capital and entered the cabinet.

He doesn't care about the life and death of the people, but he also knows that if this continues, there will be chaos in the Central Plains.

Hong Chengchou thought that his words should make Zhu Youjian make some adjustments, but...

"The situation of the migration of the people has already explained everything. In two months, 180 million people were relocated, and 90 people were relocated from the three provinces in the south of the Yangtze River."

"This year is the best opportunity to solve the dense population in the south of the Yangtze River."

Zhu Youjian became cruel. He already knew that this year and next year would be the most difficult two years for Daming, and this was also his last chance to solve Jiangnan.

The 20th and 21st years of Apocalypse correspond to the 13th year of Chongzhen and the 14th year of Chongzhen.

The reason why Zhu Youjian is very familiar with these two years is that these two years are the critical moment of Li Zicheng's rise, and also the critical moment of the Songjin battle of the Ming army.

These three things seem to be unrelated, but in fact they are implicated.

For example, the battle of Songjin, although the defeat was caused by Chongzhen's urging of the battle, the greater reason was internal.

Most people in later generations mistakenly believed that after Hong Chengchou arrived, Chongzhen urged him to fight quickly, but this is not the case.

The Battle of Songjin started in February of the 12th year of Chongzhen until Hong Chengchou was captured in April of the 15th year of Chongzhen. It lasted for more than three years.

Chongzhen urged Hong Chengchou to go to war in July of the 14th year of Chongzhen. It has been two years and four months since Hong Chengchou supervised Liaodong. That is to say, Hong Chengchou led an army of 10,000+ to station in Ningyuan for two and a half years.

Chongzhen showed his greatest trust in this battle, and he was persistent enough. The last person he gave two years was Yuan Chonghuan.

Therefore, when Hong Chengchou was given two years and four months to prepare, but found that Hong Chengchou was not ready yet, it was normal for Chongzhen to be anxious, and the reason for his anxiety was in the pass.

In the 13th and 14th years of Chongzhen, nearly [-]% of the country suffered from drought. A large number of people turned from thieves, and the finances of the Ming Dynasty began to collapse.

The land tax that they relied heavily on could no longer be collected, deserters appeared in the four towns in the northwest that were in charge of encircling and suppressing the rogues, and all the deserters defected to Li Zicheng's command.

As rogues, Li Zicheng and others were blessed by misfortune. They used the Northwest Frontier Army who had defected to form an old battalion, and relied on the "three walls" tactics to defeat the Ming Dynasty's Guannei Field Army successively.

In January of the 14th year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng conquered Luoyang, killed Fu Wang Zhu Changxun, and besieged Kaifeng.

The 14-year drought in Chongzhen did not abate, so that the Ming army could not collect food in the Central Plains, and the soldiers were starving and horseless. Li Zicheng obtained food by strangling landlords, and joined forces with Luo Rucai.

The two men had millions of mercenaries, and they executed Ming governor Fu Zonglong in Xiangcheng, beheaded [-] Ming soldiers, and even Ke Shangshui, Nanyang and other more than [-] counties.

Taxes could not be collected, land taxes could not be collected, and nearly one-third of the Central Plains Field Army was wiped out.

This is why Chongzhen urged Hong Chengchou to send troops, because if he didn't send troops to finish the Songjin battle, then Li Zicheng would become emperor, and he could only be encircled and suppressed within a year or two.

Therefore, Chongzhen needed Hong Chengchou to win the battle of Songjin, and then lead his troops back to the pass to encircle and suppress Li Zicheng.

The 13th year of Chongzhen and the 14th year of Chongzhen, the two years with the worst drought, were the two years when the Ming Dynasty could not collect taxes, the most painful two years for the people, and the two years when Li Zicheng rose and Hong Chengchou suffered a disastrous defeat.

This natural disaster directly led to the failure of the Ming Dynasty in the two fronts inside and outside the Great Wall. If it was the first line, then Ming could survive for a few more years, but the key is that both sides failed.

This was the only time the Ming army was defeated in two battles, and the result of the two defeats was doomed to the countdown of the Ming Dynasty's national fortune.

Zhu Youjian wants to use these two years to make a fuss, which is also his idea from the beginning.

It's just that the executor changed from him to Zhu Ciran, and Zhu Ciran's policy wasn't too ruthless at first, but in conjunction with the natural disasters of the past two years, it was a bit vicious.

When the two provinces of Beijing and Jiuzhou were suffering from drought, the sale of stabilized grain was prohibited, and the price of grain was raised to more than one tael and one stone, so that the people in the Central Plains could not afford to eat grain and could only migrate.

This move is tantamount to eating human blood steamed buns, but Zhu Youjian has to eat this steamed buns.

If he does not eat, he cannot fundamentally solve the problems of the three provinces in the south of the Yangtze River.

If the problems of the three provinces are not resolved, then they will still suck in Sichuan, Huguang, and north as they did in history.

Once something happens in the south of the Yangtze River, the situation that the north has to be buried with it cannot be improved.

"This year's drought is so bad, not to mention that the imperial railway is considered to be labor relief, and the land tax and grain after the autumn harvest alone is a problem."

After pondering, Zhu Youjian said to Hong Chengchou: "The prefectures and counties suffering from drought this year will be exempted from taxes for one year..."

"The next official takes orders..." Hearing what Zhu Youjian said, Hong Chengchou knew that this year's Ming's taxes might be cut in half.

But even so, there was nothing he could do. Who made the drought so unstoppable?

As for the common people, they can only suffer for them...

"Woooo-"

When Hong Chengchou answered, the whistle of the train sounded not far from the fields in Henan.

Everyone knows that summer should be hot, but they didn't expect that the weather in the 20 years of Apocalypse exceeded their imagination.

After several spring rains in spring, there has been no heavy rain in Henan.

The sun in the sky hung hot in the sky like a fireball splashed with oil, emitting scorching fire outward.

Even the only remaining cloud that covered the sky was wiped out by the sun's transpiration.

Suffering from heatstroke, Cicada hid under the armpit of a big withered tree, screaming weakly due to the heat.

The earth was baked into a red copper color by the sun and split open one after another. Even the clumps of wheat and rice could not help but dry up.

A scorching heat wave blew, and the dry wheat and rice broke off one after another.

"One-two! One-two! One-two!"

On the edge of the field, hundreds of old farmers kept stepping on the mechanism that controls the speed of the waterwheel, trying to pump the river water into the field to irrigate the crops.

Behind them, the river that once overflowed the field ridge from time to time, now only left the river bed less than a foot wide.

Even if there is only this little water left, the old farmers will not let it go, and block it to irrigate the crops.

It's just that everyone knows that it's only early summer, and once it enters the dog days, the river will stop flowing.

But they were unwilling to give up hope, and struggled in the fields, waiting for the heavy rain with the anxious people.

It's a pity that there is no miracle, and there is still no drop of rain in Henan in April, which is desperate.

While waiting helplessly, the crops and people gradually became closer to the once hated dark clouds and ruthless cold wind, looking forward to the arrival of clouds and wind all the time.

"I'm coming!"

"It's getting dark!"

"God, hurry up and let it rain! I beg you old man!"

The dark clouds came, the cold wind came, and the people in the field knelt down and kowtowed. During this period, there was a heavy rain. Even if they knocked their hair and face on the dirt, they never saw the heavy rain...

They looked up at the sky as if they were "crazy", and there were tens of millions of people like them.

Every province, every province, every state, every county, every village...

All the people who are busy in the fields hope that there will be a heavy rain from heaven.

However, with the passage of time, people's hopes gradually turned yellow like the leaves of the crops. The heavy rain they were looking forward to did not come until May.

Not only that, after entering May, the drought spread further, and no land in the whole north was spared from the disaster.

The paddy fields are dry, the riverbed is dry, the trees are dead, the crops are turned into dust, and the people are starving and thin.

At this time, everyone knows that it is impossible to grow food from the ground this year.

Therefore, in the last month of the official relocation, people in various provinces suffering from drought started their own "self-help" road.

Their self-help is to take the migration token and get on the train to Anxi and Beiting.

Today’s train is still repaired to Shazhou. As long as they arrive in Shazhou, they can follow the team to Yizhou Capital (Hami) in Anxi, and then experience the oasis all the way to settle down.

As the maker of this policy, Zhu Ciran understands how hard the lives of the common people are.

He came to the train station at the West Railway Station of the capital city, where there were insults against him everywhere, obviously they all thought that if Zhu Ciran hadn't set the relocation time to end in June, then they wouldn't be in such a hurry.

Faced with these cursing, Zhu Ciran didn't say anything, just walked out of the train station, returned to Beijing West City, and stopped at a restaurant.

"Go in and eat..."

Zhu Ciran led Du Yinxi, Liu Shun, and Zhang Xiu into the restaurant.

This restaurant was a place that Zhu Ciran used to come to often. In the past, not to mention the tables were full of customers, but at least the seats on the first floor could be filled.

But right now, not only are there only one or two tables of guests on the second floor, but there are only three tables of guests on the first floor.

As soon as Zhu Ciran and the others sat down, the shopkeeper came over with a look of embarrassment on his face, holding the menu.

"Master Zhang, the prices of commodities have risen, and our vegetable prices have also risen accordingly. Take a look..."

The shopkeeper handed over a menu with various dishes written on it, but the prices had all increased by [-] to [-]%.

"Let's keep the original dishes, it's okay..."

Zhu Ciran forced a smile and handed back the menu. The shopkeeper finally heaved a sigh of relief when he heard the words, he quickly smiled and nodded in response, and then asked people to prepare.

Zhu Ciran's four favorite dishes are scrambled eggs with tomatoes, fried potato cubes, steamed chicken with five flavors, and mutton bone soup with Yuanzhi.

Four dishes plus four bowls of rice is the lunch for the four of them.

Maybe it was because they just went to the train station and saw the miserable conditions of the people, but Zhu Ciran and his group didn't say much.

It was not until the checkout that Zhu Ciran sighed when he saw the bill of 130 Erwen.

"Uh... the price of rice has risen, and you know it, so the price of rice has also risen a little bit. If you feel uncomfortable, I will give you a zero. How about 130 Wen?"

The shopkeeper was afraid of offending his regular customer, but Zhu Ciran shook his head, asked Liu Shun to give the silver, and left after saying that he would come back next time.

The four of them boarded the carriage back to the palace, and as soon as they boarded the carriage, Zhu Ciran said:
"In the past, the four of you and I spent at most a hundred Wen for such a meal, but now it has increased by [-]%."

"You said, is there a problem with my national policy, or is it really because of natural disasters?"

Zhu Ciran suddenly felt that he had done something wrong?Perhaps my uncle's relocation policy is more suitable for Daming's national conditions.

However, as soon as he opened his mouth, Du Yinxi shook his head and denied:
"Your Highness did nothing wrong. We cannot resist natural disasters. This year's disaster is caused by natural disasters, not His Highness's fault."

"If it is true that there is something wrong, it is that His Highness failed to implement this policy a year in advance to relocate more people."

"Since last year, nearly 400 million people have migrated to various places in the country. Now there are more than [-] people in Anxi and Beiting, and there are more than [-] people in Shanyu, and there are even more people in the provinces." .”

Du Yinxi paused, took a breath, and continued:

"These 400 million people migrated out, and the Central Plains lost 400 million rations."

"If there is no severe drought this year, the common people will have a good year, so what's wrong with your Highness?"

"In my opinion, the immediate priority is to postpone the termination of migration until the end of the year, but we can't say it directly. Instead, we should use the drought as an excuse to express a grace period so that the people can emigrate to escape the disaster."

"If Guochao can still move the same number of people to the north and south this year as last year, then Guochao's northern and southern borders will be consolidated, and only the two provinces of Anxi will be left."

Du Yinxi's ability to say such a thing is enough to show the scale of the population migration in Ming Dynasty.

Relying on railways, ships, and wooden sailboats, more than [-] million people were relocated in one and a half years, which is worthy of being recorded in the annals of history in any era.

In Du Yinxi's view, this should be a merit, because the departure of more than four million people left nearly 6000 million mu of unowned cultivated land to the people who stayed on this land.

The cultivated land will be distributed to the people by the local government after the disaster, and the people who stay will live a good life like the people in Sichuan and Yunnan.

Du Yinxi's words enlightened Zhu Ciran, and he also took a deep breath:

"Perhaps you are right. Since I am in charge of the government and oversee the country for my father and Uncle Qi Wang, I cannot be kind to a woman."

"As long as I know that this is a good thing for the people..."

He resumed his previous calmness, raised his head and resolutely ordered to Liu Shun and others:

"After returning to the palace, tell the Migration Department, the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Households and the Ministry of Rites..."

"Due to the severe drought, tens of millions of people were homeless and had no land to cultivate. The termination of the migration was postponed until the Zhengdan Festival in the 21st year of Tianqi."

"During the period, the money and food expenses for the people's migration will be borne by the government. If there are people who exploit the people's rations in various places, the whole family will be arrested and all the nine clans will be punished!"

Zhu Ciran became so ruthless that he even talked about the words that King Qi didn't often say, such as Zhu Jiuzu.

Compared with King Qi, he is more ruthless when facing corrupt officials.

It's just that compared to when he was still concerned about the migration of the people, the minds of the officials were all on those gentry and powerful who refused to move...