Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 486

Since entering June, the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and the entire Yangtze River have entered the dry season, and the drought lasted for more than three months, and there was no sign of relief until September.

Because the drought is so severe, even the Yangtze River near Nanjing has experienced an extremely rare phenomenon of cut-off.

Faced with such a severe natural disaster, Chongzhen was not in the mood to continue to burn cement at the foot of Qingliang Mountain. Of course, the main reason was that the quality of the cement produced was too low, which made him a little impetuous.

So Chongzhen simply took the three brothers Zhu Cihong, Zhu Cijiong, and Zhu Cixuan to the river to fetch water and irrigate the fields.

Chongzhen took his three sons to carry water to irrigate the ground, not just for show, but for real. After a few days of picking, the father and son's shoulders were all calloused, and Zhu Cizhen cried.

Gao Qiqian, the old eunuch, also called out.

But it was useless, Chongzhen's heart was like iron.

Zhu Cihong felt sorry for his younger brother and wanted to choose a section for Zhu Cizhen, but was stopped by Chongzhen.

"Boss, you have your own burdens to pick, but let him pick the fifth one himself. You can help him pick it for a while, but you can't pick it for him forever, right?"

Zhu Cihong didn't dare to carry this burden for the fifth younger brother anymore.

Because he heard that there was something in the father's words.

But Zhu Cizhen's temper has also come up, because this bear boy is not like his two brothers who have been teaching with Chongzhen for a long time, but is surrounded by a group of eunuchs, and he is used to bossing him around. How can he suffer such hardship?
"I won't do it, my son will quit." Zhu Cizhao threw the bucket on the ground, and said angrily, "My son is a dignified prince after all, even if the seedlings in the world are dead, I don't need to carry water Watering the ground? Father, don’t you just want to make a show, want a good reputation? Okay, if you want a good reputation, you can choose it yourself, and your son will not accompany you.”

Looking at Zhu Cizhao who is pouting and angry, Chongzhen can't laugh or cry. He is 12 years old. He is really an age that people hate and hate. You can say that he is not sensible. Even children can be born at this age, but you can say that he is sensible. Sanguan They have not yet formed, and no matter which aspect of thinking is naive, it is a mess.

And it seems that it is useless to fight at this age.

So Chongzhen could only scare him: "Prince? The emperor told you, it's really not certain."

"What do you mean?" Zhu Cizhao was stunned for a moment and said, "Father, you want to take away the title of your minister?"

Chongzhen shook his head: "It's not that the father wants to take away your title of prince, but maybe from your generation onwards, the rule that the emperor's heirs must be crowned princes will become history."

"No way?" Zhu Cizhao was anxious, "Is this going to be changed too?"

Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong were also a little surprised, but they had never heard of this statement.

Chongzhen smiled and said: "Then who knows? Before the final result comes out, anything can happen, Yan'er, if one day you lose the title of prince and are forced to go to your own overseas territory, then your territory will There's another severe drought, and if you don't carry water, you'll probably starve to death."

Zhu Cizhao's small face immediately collapsed: "Why do you want to go to an overseas territory?"

"It's very simple, because there is no territory for you in China." Chongzhen said, "So you can only go overseas."

Hearing this, Zhu Cizhen had no choice but to pick up the burden again, and walked forward while weeping, but in his heart he hated Chongzhen very much, and said in his heart that he would never return to Daming when he came to his own territory overseas, and he didn't want to see you.

The father and son watered the ground a few more times, and when the sky gradually darkened, they set off for Nanjing.

When entering the city from Tongji Gate, you can see that the embroidered buildings on both sides of the Qinhuai River have been lit up with lanterns, and the sound of silk and bamboo, Pingtan, Pingshu and even Yingge and Yanyu can be heard endlessly.

There is still an endless stream of people looking for fragrances coming in and out of the old courtyard.

The drought that swept across the entire Ming Dynasty did not have the slightest impact on these fragrance seekers.

In Nanjing city at this time, other neighbors are in urgent need of drinking water, but in the Qinhuai River area, Gui Nu still uses clear and sweet well water to clean the streets.

If it were a different emperor, seeing such a contrasting scene, he would definitely be furious. If it were Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor, he would probably arrest all the lovers of the old courtyard, and then demote them all to low status. But Chongzhen didn't have such an idea at all, one size equals one size, the two have nothing to do with each other at all.

If the Xunfang customers come to the old courtyard less often, and the girls who go whoring less often, will the drought in Daming be alleviated?Isn't this nonsense.

On the contrary, the entertainment industry in Jiangnan will become more active if the Xunfang customers come to the old courtyard a few more times and prostitute more girls. If the entertainment industry is more active, the economic life will be more abundant, and the economic life will become more prosperous. More colorful, jobs will increase, this is the most fundamental problem.

Of course, the entertainment industry is only one of them.

The entertainment industry alone cannot support Daming's job market.

But there is a saying, if you don't accumulate steps, you can't go a thousand miles.

One industry can only provide part of the employment, but hundreds of industries combined can provide more employment, which is enough to accommodate the labor force pouring into the city due to the drought.

It is conservatively estimated that more than one million laborers will flood into the city because of this drought.

In this severe drought, the people close to the big rivers, lakes or rivers are not bad, but the people in the mountainous areas may be miserable. If they don't want to starve to death in a large area, they can only go out to the big cities to make a living.

Therefore, the top priority is not to rectify the entertainment industry, but to invigorate the economy, increase jobs, and arrange for the farmers who are about to flock to the cities in large numbers to seek livelihood.

……

Almost at the same time, Lu Zhenfei, Zhang Shenyan, Meng Zhaoxiang and Huang Daosi also walked out of the guard room one after another.

Lu Zhenfei sighed softly and said: "Our Daming is really full of disasters. In the past 50 years, there have been various natural disasters. The past two years have finally been smoother, but this year there is another big one, which has suffered a hundred years. A once-in-a-lifetime drought.”

"Once in a hundred years?" Huang Daozhou looked up at the fading Huoshaoyun in the sky, and said quietly, "Looking at this posture, it will soon be a once in a thousand years, and I have never seen a more serious drought than this in the history books. "

"Oh, what should we do?" Meng Zhaoxiang said worriedly, "It seems that many people will starve to death."

Zhang Shenyan said with a dark face: "Instead of lamenting what to do here, it is better to prepare food as soon as possible to help the people survive this once-in-a-hundred-year or even a thousand-year-old famine."

Huang Daozhou began to shirk responsibility at this time: "Our cabinet can't handle this matter."

"What are you talking about?" Zhang Shenyan said angrily, "This matter is the responsibility of our cabinet. What do you mean our cabinet can't handle it? Do you want to say that this matter should be handled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs?"

"It should be handed over to the Ministry of Internal Affairs." Huang Daozhou snorted, "the warehouse of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is full of money and grain, and the granary in Wuchang Town alone stores tens of millions of shi of surplus grain! Just allocate some grain, This calamity year is over."

"So our cabinet doesn't have to do anything. Is that what Huang Ge always means?" Zhang Shen said.

When Huang Daozhou was about to refute, he was interrupted by Lu Zhenfei: "Stop arguing, what time is it, you're still arguing."

Lu Zhenfei was also upset. Ever since the two articles in Huangming Times and Hanlin Daily were published, Zhang Shenyan and Huang Daozhou began to fight each other.

"I heard that Du Yinxi has arrived at the Imperial College, and I want to report the disaster in detail to the Holy One."

Speaking of this meal, Lu Zhenfei said again: "We also went to Guozi to listen to it."

……

When Lu Zhenfei and the others rushed to Yilun Hall, the Chongzhen father and son had just sat down.

After the monarchs and ministers saw the ceremony, Chongzhen said to Du Yinxi again: "Du Qing, since the four elders have also come, then you should explain the situation again."

"Yes." Du Yinxi replied respectfully, "In the past two months, I have traveled all over the eight prefectures and one prefecture in the south of the Yangtze River, Shandong, Henan and Huguang provinces. Jiangxi also visited several places near the Yangtze River and Poyang Lake. Except for Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Fujian, the drought situation in other provinces is basically well known.”

"Don't worry about Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and Fujian. There won't be any major problems in these provinces." Zhu Cihong asked solemnly, "Except for the above-mentioned provinces, how big is the food shortage in Ming Dynasty?"

"Qizou Prince, there is no gap." Du Yinxi replied.

"There is no gap?" Zhu Cihong was obviously taken aback after hearing this.

"There is no gap?" Lu Zhenfei and the other four elders also looked at each other.

After a long while, Zhu Cizhao, the bear kid, asked first: "How could there be no gaps? The emperor said that this is a once-in-a-hundred-year catastrophe year. If there is no rain for half a month, it will be a once-in-a-thousand-year disaster."

"King Huiyong's words, even if it happens once in a thousand years, there is still no gap."

Du Yinxi said in an extremely firm tone: "This year's food is enough."

"Is it really enough?" Lu Zhenfei frowned and said, "Before more than half a month, I also went to Huzhou, Suzhou and Hangzhou, and found that the drought is still very serious, and a large area of ​​rice has not been harvested. It is a foregone conclusion, conservatively estimated that this year, the food shortage in only eight prefectures and one state in the south of the Yangtze River will be more than 5000 million shi."

"Shou Kui's estimation is indeed a bit conservative." Du Yinxi said with a smile.

"This year's food shortage in eight prefectures and one state in the south of the Yangtze River is not 5000 million shi, but [-] million shi!"

"What? There's a gap of [-] million stones?!" Lu Zhenfei, Zhang Shenyan, Meng Zhaoxiang and Huang Daoshu's expressions suddenly changed. This gap is too big to be filled at all, and Huguang's food is not enough to fill it.

"Yes, at least 3000 million stones." Du Yinxi said, "Because up to now, the number of people in the eight prefectures and one state in the south of the Yangtze River is far from 4000 million, but at least [-] million!"

"What, do the eight prefectures and one prefecture in the south of the Yangtze River already have 4000 million people?"

Now even Chongzhen felt a little surprised, the population was growing too fast.

【Happy New Year's Day 2023】

(End of this chapter)