Brother Zhu Youxiao

Chapter 72 Loyalty Qin Liangyu

"Changing rice into mulberry"

These four words are a policy developed during the Jiajing period, transforming most of the fields in Zhejiang into mulberry fields to produce silk.

In more modern terms, this is called industrial upgrading.

But such an upgrade led to an embarrassing thing.

When the people in Southern Zhili saw that the lives of the people in Zhejiang improved because they changed rice to mulberry, they followed suit one after another. As a result, both Southern Zhili and Zhejiang changed rice to mulberry, and most of the fields were mulberry fields.

Looking at it this way, because the rice was changed to mulberry, the people had a better and more comfortable life, and the court could also use miscellaneous items to increase taxes. It seems that the situation is very good.

But such a great deal hides a crisis.

Southern Zhili and Zhejiang gathered one-third of the world's population. If the Ming Dynasty actually had [-] million people, there would be at least [-] million people here.

After the original local arable land is cultivated, it can not only feed [-] million people, but also produce food to feed [-] million more people. Therefore, it is a good thing that we can go north to support the north.

But as I said just now, such a good thing has a kind of crisis.

That is, after changing rice to mulberry, the arable land that could support [-] million people was cut in half, and now it can only support [-] million people.

But there are [-] million people living on this land, so it means that [-] million people need to import food to feed their stomachs.

Where do they import their food from?It's very simple, only the food from Sichuan, Huguang, and Jiangxi can satisfy their appetite.

Therefore, they transferred the grain to these three provinces, and after the grain from the three provinces arrived in the south of the Yangtze River, they would be detained and sold to the people in the south of the Yangtze River at a high price to grab profits.

The grain was seized and exploited to feed the people in the south of the Yangtze River, but the north still needs grain.

Therefore, the self-interested Jiangnan Merchants Group began to use another method to grab profits.

When the grain harvest in the three provinces is harvested, they will buy and store the grain at a high price, and then sell the grain to the people in the south of the Yangtze River to grab the first profit.

The imperial court will ask why the grain in the south is not available, and officials from Sichuan, Huguang, and Jiangxi will point the blame to Jiangnan, but Jiangnan will find various reasons to prevaricate.

At this time, due to the late arrival of grain in the north, the price of grain began to rise, and even famine occurred.

At this time, grains that were originally worth only three hundred yuan a stone in the original place of origin could be sold for eight or nine hundred yuan a stone when transported to the north, and the profit tripled.

In this era, the ability to triple the profit can be said to have completely aroused the evil thoughts in the hearts of the people.

Therefore, a huge interest group began to rise.

Zhu Youjian wants to transport grain directly to Liaodong?Yes, all officials will not stop you, but if something happens to one of your seagoing ships, officials belonging to the three parties of Qi, Chu, and Zhejiang will impeach you.

It's as if what you lost was not a ship, but a whole batch of grain.

As for how the ship sank?Whoever benefits is naturally the one who makes the move.

Different from increasing commercial taxes, food is the simplest and most accessible profit-making tool for all parties in this era.

Commercial taxes and miscellaneous items are not important to the Qi and Chu parties, but more important to the Zhejiang party.

But for food, whoever moves it will die...

In history, Shen Tingyang transported grain by sea with the support of Chongzhen. Just transporting a batch of grain saved Chongzhen tens of thousands of taels of silver, allowing the north to breathe a little, which shows the importance of grain.

But the situation at that time was that the whole world had been overwhelmed by bandits, and the capable ministers of the Qi Party, Chu Party, Zhejiang Party, and Donglin Party were all killed by Tianqi, Wei Zhongxian, and Chongzhen during the twenty-odd years of sanctions.

The remaining group of wine bags and rice bags can only fool Chongzhen, but dare not cheat Chongzhen.

Because he really dared to kill, and if he killed, he would kill the whole family.

It's just that there are too many people with political vision and means at the moment, not to mention Zhu Youjian, even if he tied the good emperor brother to the thief boat together, it is estimated that the two brothers fell into the water and died.

Therefore, it is Zhu Youjian's job to come up with a safe solution that does not stimulate the nerves of the party.

He walked out of Man Gui's narration, and looked at Yang Lian at the first sight.

"Yang Kei thinks in the matter, if it is transported by sea, is it feasible to transport grain to Liaodong?"

Zhu Youjian tried Yang Lian as soon as he opened his mouth, just because Yang Lian was one of the few ministers in the Donglin Party who had no vested interest groups behind him.

If even Yang Lian dared not face Hai Yun directly, then the other Donglin Party would not dare.

Zhu Youjian's words made everyone look at Yang Lian, and he was not a fool, he just said:

"If the matter is beneficial to the court, it can naturally be done, but His Highness needs to think about it. The Ming Dynasty can still withstand His Highness's toss a few times."

Yang Lian vaguely reminded Zhu Youjian that it was clear that Yang Lian wanted to do it, but if he did it, the Donglin Party would definitely oppose it.

The supporters of the Donglin Party are all country gentry, and they also rely on grain and land for a living. It is difficult to guarantee that they have nothing to do with the matter of grain.

Right now, Da Mingchao is like an old man suffering from all kinds of illnesses.

If you are careful and get rid of various minor diseases little by little, you can live for a while, but serious diseases will still break out.

But if you just think about getting rid of the biggest pain, it will only make it die suddenly.

To move the sea, the emperor's majesty must be pushed to the highest level, and the things that promote the emperor's majesty are nothing more than wars and political means.

Either like Jiajing, the whole court is playing with applause, or like Ming Chengzu and Ming Taizu, winning consecutive victories.

Or, like the Ming Xianzong Zhu Jianshen among the ancestors of Zhu Youjian, grasping with both hands.

But it is impossible for Zhu Youjian to play political tricks and go to war again.

So he can only rely on the emperor brother...

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian also put away his thoughts, and said to Man Gui, Sun Yingyuan, Qi Jin and others:

"Tomorrow, I will set off to return to the capital. After returning to the capital, I will ask the chief ministers of various places to post notices, informing the people of the request of the Imperial Horse Supervisor to recruit soldiers, as well as the reclaiming of the wasteland at the foot of Yanshan Mountain."

"Mangui, send someone back to the Xuanfu to recruit troops. By the way, look at the old general Qi's military training methods. If there is anything you can learn from, temporarily supervise and manage the three guards of Habayashi."

"Huachun, you stay in the barracks. Tomorrow, you will receive the Shizhu soldiers and General Qin for me. After the arrival of the martial arts and three guards craftsmen from the Ministry of Industry the day after tomorrow, you can start repairing the imperial mausoleum."

After saying this, Zhu Youjian didn't say anything more, Qi Jin and the three handed over their hands to compose, Cao Huachun nodded, and Yang Lian kept silent.

Seeing that he didn't speak, Zhu Youjian didn't say anything, but retreated with Wang Chengen.

However, shortly after the two left, a Jin Yiwei suddenly came to Zhu Youjian with a handwritten letter, and handed it:
"Your Highness, things have changed, I'm afraid you need to know..."

"Huh?" Hearing this, Zhu Youjian had a bad premonition, and took over the handwriting to read ten lines at a glance.

There is not much content in the letter, just a sentence "Qin Liangyu has led three thousand white soldiers from Youyang to the north".

Zhu Youjian did not expect that after Qin Liangyu dispatched three thousand stone pillar white soldiers including Qin Bangping, he trained three thousand Youyang white soldiers to go north in a short period of time.

As a result, his plan to encircle and suppress She Chongming has flaws, but on the other hand, it also means that his cards in the north will be easier to play.

"We must change the plan to encircle and suppress She Chongming..."

Frowning, Zhu Youjian thought of this in his heart, and then put away the handwriting, preparing to pack up and return to the capital tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)