Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 992 North Korea ([-])

"Time is running out." Shao Shude said with a complicated expression as he put down the letter paper.This is a private letter written to him by Liu Weimin, the chairman of the executive committee. The general idea in the letter is that the issue of Shao Shude’s fate will be discussed and decided after the new executive committee takes office in 1654. Before that, Shao Shude will continue to serve in the black Water areas, control the overall situation.

Although there is no need to leave immediately, Shao Shude estimates that he will stay in the Far East no later than 1655. That is to say, he will continue to be in power here for about two years at most. As soon as the new helm of the Far East arrives, he will Resign and return home.Before him, Yang Mingyang, Zhang Xudong, Li Wenchang and others who had served in the Far East for many years had returned to China one after another, and new replacement candidates had also arrived in Shandong. The executive committee was quite determined to rotate military and political officials in the Far East.Shao Shude estimated that Liu Haiyang, the commander of the Southern Theater Command and the commander-in-chief of the Blackwater Temporary Task Force, might be the next to be rotated. Still some more years to go.

And because time is running out, Shao Shude is particularly unwilling to launch another war that cannot be ended during his term of office, such as the attack on the coastal areas of Japan—this kind of war is likely to be impossible to end in a short period of time. Let's wait until the new leader of the Far East is in place.

But not moving to Japan now does not mean they are not moving to other places. At the request of Army Commander-in-Chief Mao Desheng, Shao Shude is now very interested in moving North Korea.As for excuses, they are all ready-made. You sent musketeers from North Korea to join the battle sequence of the Qing army and fight with us in the Heilongjiang River Basin on the East Bank.

Of course, any military operation must have interests, whether it is short-term interests or long-term interests, and whether it is political interests or economic interests, there must be interests, otherwise it is better not to fight this battle.The interests of fighting North Korea are readily available. One is political interests. Through military strikes against North Korea, it can further weaken the separation between this country that does not think much of the Qing Dynasty and "My Great Qing"; the other is economic interests. This is also the information obtained from the continuous investigation and collection of Jin Wugui, a well-known "traitor" in Busan in the past two years.

According to Kim Go-gyu's report, since the end of the war with Hou Jin, North Korea's economic development has improved in recent years.For example, according to North Korea’s public information, the number of cultivated land in the country has almost returned to the state before the war in 1592. At present, there are more than 130 million knots (North Korean land units), excluding tax-free land, Chen Tian (that is, barren land) and the disasters that exempted money and grain in the past. In Tian, ​​the average tax payment land is about 70 knots, and the production order is hundreds of times better than the collapsed Imjin War and the Jin invasion in 1636, and the population has also been restored to a certain extent.

North Korea's agricultural technology has steadily improved as the population and the number of fields cultivated have increased.For example, the rice transplanting method that appeared in the 15th century has been promoted in many prefectures of North Korea since 1650, and both the output and quality of rice have been improved to varying degrees.Undoubtedly, North Korean farmers are extremely hardworking and their agricultural technology is also extremely superb (the cold-resistant rice varieties that can be planted in the Northeast in later generations were cultivated by the farmers of the North Korean Kingdom), so North Korea's food production has also grown steadily in recent years. Recovery, and even some areas that lack money due to the implementation of the "Datong Law" still export rice to Busan through various secret channels, in exchange for money from people on the east coast.

The scale of this kind of grain transaction has reached more than [-] shi per year, and there is a possibility of continuous increase. This is a great boon for the grain reserves of the people on the east coast.Originally, after they occupied Ningbo Mansion and developed steadily for several years, the food shortage has been greatly alleviated. Now that they have North Korean food supplements, they are even more at ease.As for a little money to buy grain, that's nothing, the treasury in Dabo County has plenty of it!If not, believe it or not, I will go to Australia to mine gold for you?

What's even better is that after Emperor Xiaozong Li Hao succeeded to the throne (1649), the "Datong Law" vigorously promoted by Jin Yu (equivalent to the prime minister) gradually became the mainstream taxation method in North Korea.The Datong Law changed the previous method of collecting grain and rice, regular cloth (cloth size, 5 feet of 35 liters of cotton is 1 piece), charcoal, agricultural products and other physical objects with more disadvantages, and set a unified tax of 10-16 per knot. A new tax system for buckets of rice (because the size of land plots varies from county to county).And if there is not enough rice to pay the tax, you can also pay the money.The implementation of this new tax system undoubtedly greatly activated the commodity economy and pushed a large amount of rice to the market. At the same time, it also liberated a large number of handicraftsmen and businessmen to engage in various industrial activities to prosper the market.

The formation of such a situation is naturally gratifying to the people on the east coast, because they have a huge amount of money on hand and have nowhere to spend it, and it is best to cash it in exchange for food.The only problem now is probably that due to the existence of conservative forces in North Korea, the scale of this kind of private grain trade has not been able to effectively expand, and even at certain special moments, North Korean bureaucrats will order to ban this kind of trade. Jin Wugui in Busan has been very annoyed: Obviously North Korea's food production has been mobilized, but you actually ban trade, how can this be tolerated?

In addition to food production, the cultivation of tobacco, peppers, and pumpkins introduced to North Korea by Japan during the Imjin War also developed rapidly in the past few decades.Especially tobacco. In the 1630s, Korean tobacco began to be introduced into Shenyang in large quantities. The proportion of smokers in the post-Golden regime was so high that in 1638, Huang Taiji once ordered a ban on smoking to reduce the outflow of money. At the same time, he ordered North Korea to ban the export of tobacco. .

After North Korea banned the export of tobacco, it did not ban cultivation, because the proportion of North Koreans who smoke is quite a lot.As a result, the cultivation of tobacco quickly spread in Jeolla-do, Chungcheong-do, Gangwon-do, Gyeonggi-do and other places. While supplying for their own consumption, it also continued to sneak into China to earn money.

Peppers, pumpkins, and tomatoes (introduced from China, and the Koreans call them "Nanban persimmons") have also developed rapidly after being introduced to North Korea, and the current planting area is quite large.Shao Shude privately thought that these agricultural products were urgently needed by the people on the east bank, and they could also be used to balance the possible future trade surplus. I am afraid that it will be difficult to achieve the level of comprehensive trade.

Of course, the best commodity North Korea uses to balance its trade deficit is wild ginseng.This traditional North Korean export product has always been their big money-sucker. The price of wild old wild ginseng starts from a few hundred taels of silver, and there is no upper limit. It is no different from stealing money.Some people may say that with the increasing population of North Korea (the population of the Little Ice Age is still gradually increasing...), the area of ​​"fire field" (that is, the original wilderness) is expanding, and the wild old wild ginseng should be more and more popular. Less is more, but why is the business in North Korea getting better and better?

The answer lies in artificial breeding.In fact, the Koreans have been cultivating wild ginseng artificially since a long time ago. In addition to the traditional wild ginseng production areas such as Gangwon-do and Hamgyong-do, the Koreans cultivated a large number of artificial wild ginseng in the Kaesong area of ​​Gyeonggi-do, and then processed and steamed into ginseng. Red ginseng, imported into China in large quantities.After the 1620s, Kaesong has become the main producer of Korean ginseng, and the annual trade volume is huge enough to be jaw-dropping.

To be honest, the report sent by Jin Wugui to Yantai gave Shao Shude a new understanding of North Korea.In the past, he always thought that this feudal country with millions of people was a stagnant and extremely poor country, because they couldn't even make up the final payment to redeem Ganghwa Island.But now he thinks that there may be some deviations in his understanding. Although ordinary farmers in North Korea are poor, and the government’s finances may not be very rich, but the aristocracy dominated by the Great Northern and Small Northern Classes, the Western People’s Party, and the Southern People’s Party The class is not poor at all. They continue to embezzle farmers' land during wars or natural disasters. In the past, out of the 140 million knots of land in North Korea, only 20 knots did not pay taxes. Now, among the 130 million knots of land, there are almost 60 knots of land that do not pay taxes. Knots - make your wealth continue to accumulate.

These people are all good fat pigs!Shao Shude snorted twice. Of course, what he valued was not the money of these people, but the agricultural products, livestock and even labor they held in their hands.Instead of leaving these things in the hands of these pig and dog-like landlords and gentry to moldy and rotten (historical facts, like the gentry of the Ming Dynasty, they would rather rot than give food to the hungry people, so that the "fire thieves" and other hungry people in North Korea were armed. It’s not going to stop), it’s better to use it as a tribute to my Dadong’an, so that we can find a way to capture more people from the territory of “My Great Qing” for resettlement.

So, fighting North Korea has both political and economic benefits, so why not do it?You know, in the face of the paper-like North Korean army, the people on the east bank don't need to invest a lot of troops, and they don't need to go deep into the hinterland of North Korea. Soon someone will be sent to sue for peace--that's almost certain.

And at that time, if we discuss with North Korea about further deepening trade and other matters, the resistance will not be so great.They are very realistic, and their memory will improve after being beaten, which is really cute.

When Shao Shude thought of this, he already had some notation in his mind, so he immediately took out a pen and paper, and finished writing a letter in one stroke, then rang the bell to call his secretary, and asked him to send someone to deliver the letter to At the moment, he is in the hands of Major Mao Desheng, the former commander-in-chief of the army in Zhaoyuan County.

(End of this chapter)