"Chen Junchong is looking at the problem from a development perspective, and there is nothing wrong with it." Hao Guangming, who was at the old house in Zhulin, expressed his thoughts.

"However, banditry and border troubles in the north are not easy to quell. Without a stable environment, it will be difficult for people to feel at ease in production, and it will be difficult to promote high-yielding grains quickly.

Therefore, it is better to prioritize the promotion of those grain varieties that are suitable for planting in both the north and the south in recent years in the south.

But high-yielding grains can indeed speed up the recovery of people's livelihood in the north - therefore, I think you can first estimate the share of high-yielding grains required by each province, and then consider distribution."

After hearing this, Zhu Aao nodded secretly.

Just at this time, the debate among the ministers below came to an end, and Zhu Yuyao explained what Hao Guangming meant.

Although Chen Junchong and other northern governors were not satisfied, they also understood that it was indeed difficult to maximize the amount of grain in the north in recent years.

On the other hand, after a few years when the north truly settles down and the population grows to a certain extent, it will be easier to obtain a large amount of high-yielding grains from the south.

In addition, for grains such as wheat and sorghum that are more suitable for production in the north, high-yield grains will definitely be supplied to northern provinces first.

These high-yield grains have actually been of great help to the recovery of people's livelihood in the north.

After the distribution plan for high-yielding grain varieties was decided, Zhu Yuyao raised a second minor issue -

"When talking about the development of the northern provinces, there is one thing that must be mentioned, and that is water transportation.

All the ministers should know that because the imperial court in the capital and the three northern border provinces relied heavily on the financial and food support of the southern provinces, the Ming Dynasty relied heavily on water transportation.

It can even be said that water transportation is related to the lifeline of the country and has become a top priority in the Ming Dynasty."

Having said this, Zhu Aona paused.

The ministers nodded slightly.

Because Zhu Yusao was right, water transportation was the lifeblood of the Ming Dynasty before.

"It is obviously unreasonable to place all the safety of the Ming Dynasty on water transportation. If water transportation is hindered, the country will be in crisis.

Therefore, for more than two hundred years before, although water transportation was riddled with drawbacks and serious problems, no one in the imperial court dared to reform water transportation.

However, in the past few years, the world has been in chaos, the northern provinces have been depopulated, and water transportation has been completely cut off. Now is a good time for the court to solve the problem of water transportation.

To solve the water transportation problem, the first step is to reduce the court's dependence on water transportation.

The population of the northern provinces was greatly reduced, and the imperial court was moved to Nanjing, which greatly reduced the imperial court's reliance on water transportation.

This alone is not enough, so I decided to develop land transportation and sea transportation to share the pressure of water transportation."

After hearing this, all the ministers began to think.

The so-called water transport generally refers to the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in a narrow sense, the main water transport route running through the north and south of the Ming Dynasty, but in a broad sense it refers to all river transport in the Ming Dynasty.

It should be noted that in ancient times, land transportation was far less convenient than water transportation.

First of all, the transport volume of land transportation is low, and people consume a lot of food when chewed by horses. If a batch of grain is transported to a place too far by land, it may be eaten by the people transporting the grain and the mules and horses before it arrives.

Water transportation does not require horses and uses fewer people, so consumption is naturally less.

The only thing to worry about is that it is not as safe as the land route - if the boat capsizes, the entire cargo of food will be lost; unlike the land route, if the car capsizes, the food can be transferred to another vehicle to continue transporting it.

At that time, people called the situation when a grain transport ship had an accident on the water and caused losses as "drifting".

When the country's officials are clean and honest, and the government is honest and efficient, the majority of the people who are cheating will naturally be genuine, and the overall number of cheating will be quite small.

But when the country's official administration is corrupted, corruption is rampant, and local control is insufficient, the price will become higher and higher, making the cost of water transportation higher and higher.

One of the reasons for the increase in drifting is that some rivers have not been dredged and repaired in time, and the boating environment is not good, so the number of actual boat capsizing accidents has increased.

But the main reason is that officials at both the upper and lower levels used the excuse of the flood of water transport to embezzle the grain that originally belonged to the country like moths.

The problem of water transportation is not limited to the Ming Dynasty. It can be said that it has existed since the beginning of water transportation. In the Ming Dynasty, from the emperor to the petty officials, many people knew that there were problems with water transportation, but under normal circumstances, no one had the courage and ability to solve it.

Because in the past, water transport not only involved a large group of corrupt officials and gentry forces, but also involved the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of water troops and millions of family members behind them.

Caojun, also known as Yunjun and Caogong, were actually workers who specialized in transporting grain and other materials for the imperial court in ancient times.

However, after the wars in the last few years of the Chongzhen Dynasty, not only the corrupt officials involved in water transport were dispersed and destroyed, but even the canal army was destroyed in name only.

Therefore, if the Ming Dynasty wants to reform water transportation, it will not have to face these two major obstacles - the officials who rely on water transportation to gain profits, and the canal army who make a living from water transportation. Naturally, there are still some, but their numbers and power have been weakened compared to a few years ago.

Extreme.

No matter how unwilling these people are, they can hardly influence the court's decision.

···

Fang Kongzheng, who was sitting in the last row, was a little confused after listening to Zhu Yuluo's words.

Zhu Yurao said that sea transportation should be used to share water transportation. He could understand, because in the Yuan Dynasty, sea transportation was used to share the pressure of water transportation.

Can we use land transportation to share water transportation? Is it feasible?

The land transportation losses are the largest.

Fang Kongzhen didn't think that Zhu Yurao, Ma Shiying and other cabinet ministers didn't understand this truth, so there must be some reason that he didn't know.

Just when Fang Kongzheng was confused, he saw Lu Zhenfei, the Minister of Transportation in front of him, stood up and said: "Your Majesty is wise and should take this opportunity to reform water transportation and share the pressure of water transportation with sea transportation and land transportation.

Maritime transportation can rely on ships - Chen Guan ships not only require significantly fewer sailors, but are also stronger and can withstand greater winds and waves. This means that if ships are used for maritime transportation, the risks will be far less than before.

Land transportation can rely on railway transportation, and even in the future, railway transportation can be the main mode of transportation in our country."

As Minister of Transportation, Lu Zhenfei currently knows the most about railway transportation among the ministers, and he already knows about the successful trial construction of practical trains and railways.

He even watched a video of train transportation from later generations, which shocked him so much that he became a staunch supporter of railway transportation.

However, although other people have heard about railway transportation, they still don’t know the importance of railway transportation because they have never seen the real scene.

There were even some people, such as Fang Kongzhen, Yang Wencong, Zhang Kuang, etc., who had heard about trains and railway transportation for the first time, and they all looked at a loss.

Noticing the changes in the expressions of these ministers, Zhu Yurao smiled and said: "It seems that not all of you are aware of trains and railway transportation. I just have a video here. You will understand after watching it."

Immediately, Zhu Aao asked Forsythia to project a video on another curtain.

This video is divided into two parts. The first part shows the train running on a section of railway track trial-built by the Chengdu Secret Manufacturing Bureau.

Fang Kongzheng looked around and saw that in a wilderness, a circular double-track "road" that was estimated to be one mile was paved with iron rods of varying thicknesses.

On this railway, there is an iron car parked.

The car has two sections, the front section has a chimney and the rear section is a carriage.

When I first saw the beginning of this video, Fang Kongzheng's first thought was - luxury, really luxury!

Not only was the car made of iron, but the "road" underneath the car was also paved with iron.

Then he couldn't help but suddenly thought, secretly: Could it be that the railways mentioned by Your Majesty and Lu Zhenfei are all roads paved with iron?
Chapter completed!