In the autumn of the tenth month of the twenty-third year of Chengshun, Jinling City was as full of prosperity as ever, and the many commercial streets were bustling with people coming and going.

Speaking of the prosperity of a simple city, it also appeared in the prosperous times of various dynasties in the past.

However, the so-called prosperity of any dynasty is different from the prosperity of the Chu Empire.

In the Great Chu Empire, not only large cities like Jinling City were prosperous, but also many small and medium-sized cities and even ordinary rural areas lived and worked in peace and contentment.

I can’t say that I can have enough to eat, but at least there won’t be a large-scale famine and people starve to death.

In the past dynasties, the so-called prosperous times were nothing more than a sharp decline in population after frequent and long-term wars. Later, there were fewer people and more land, and land conflicts were alleviated.

The same is true for the so-called ZTE!

Essentially, the population is smaller and the land is more, so there is more food per capita.

So when you look at the so-called prosperous age and ZTE in the past dynasties from the perspective of per capita food, you will find a very cruel fact: before the prosperous age or ZTE, there will be a large-scale population extinction event. This event is inexhaustible.

All except war!

Even so, the per capita food supply in these so-called prosperous times was still a very miserable figure.

When it comes to the Chu Empire, the early recovery of people's livelihood cannot escape this law, which is especially obvious in the northern provinces.

There is still so much land in several northern provinces, but the population has dropped significantly after experiencing various natural and man-made disasters in the late Ming Dynasty.

After the Chu Empire pacified these places and organized the local people to resume agricultural production, land conflicts were no longer so intense. Correspondingly, after normal agricultural production was restored, per capita food data increased to a certain extent.

But this situation is only limited to the early stage!

As the Dachu Empire continued to develop industrialization, various factories powered by water-powered machinery and then steam-powered equipment were put into production, and production efficiency was greatly improved.

This improvement in industrial production efficiency brings not only an increase in industrial and commercial income, but also a significant reduction in the cost and selling price of various industrial products that can be used in agriculture.

Such as farm tools and various daily tools!

In the past, agricultural production tools such as iron hoes, plows, sickles, wood knives, and axes were very valuable to any ordinary farmer family.

Because iron is expensive, agricultural tools made of high-quality iron materials are even more expensive!

In an ordinary peasant family, if they want to buy an iron hoe, they have to save money for a long time.

Restrictions on production tools have resulted in farmers’ production efficiency being limited in past agricultural production.

But in the Dachu Empire, iron was no longer an expensive raw material, and iron products were no longer expensive tools.

Because of the official capital and profit-seeking private capital in the Chu Empire, countless iron ore and coal mines were invested and developed.

A large number of steel plants were also opened and constructed.

The amount of steel raw materials it produces is very large, enough to lower the price of iron products to a level acceptable to the public.

In addition, the official capital of the Dachu Empire has promoted the plan of local machinery factories from the beginning, ensuring that there is at least one government-run small machinery factory in every prefecture-level/state-level administrative region. This kind of small machinery factory is not

Used for other purposes, it is specifically used to mass-produce various tools required for various agricultural productions and supply them to the local market at an affordable price.

A large amount of mineral mining, a large amount of steel raw materials, plus local small machinery factories everywhere.

All these allowed the farmers in the Chu Empire to obtain enough various production tools at low prices, especially agricultural tools.

The improvement of production tools has led to the improvement of the production efficiency of the farmers in the Chu Empire. The per capita cultivated land is more, or they can have more leisure time to do odd jobs, or do other things to make money to support their families.

In addition to the improvement of tools, the extensive promotion of animal husbandry in the Chu Empire was also an important reason for the improvement of agricultural production efficiency.

In the feudal dynasty, cattle, mules and horses were all expensive production tools. They were extremely expensive and could not be owned by ordinary peasant families.

However, the officialdom of the Da Chu Empire began to vigorously promote the development of folk animal husbandry, especially the development of cattle and agricultural mules and horses. Through the establishment of a large number of government-run cattle or mule farms, more cattle or agricultural mules and horses were cultivated and promoted

market, and at the same time vigorously encourage private capital to invest in animal husbandry.

When the supply of cattle and mules and horses increases, the prices of cattle and mules will naturally gradually decrease.

Coupled with the gradual increase in farmers' income, some wealthy farmer families have gradually been able to purchase and breed cattle.

After ten years of support and promotion of agricultural and animal husbandry, the number of cattle and agricultural mules and horses in the Chu Empire is now very large.

This further improves the per capita production efficiency of agriculture.

Of course, the Chu Empire’s continuous construction of various water conservancy facilities for twenty years is also indispensable.

Each of these measures and each policy may only have a small effect, but when the effects of many policies are aggregated, it becomes a very impressive figure.

In addition, the Chu Empire also carried out large-scale agricultural development in the northern areas with less people and more land, especially in the northeastern region. Large-scale horse farming was carried out here, which added a large amount of additional food supply to the Chu Empire.

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There were also expansion and colonial activities in the Nanyang region, which also brought a large source of food to the Chu Empire.

Large-scale animal husbandry has developed in the northern grasslands. Although the meat provided by the animal husbandry in these places is difficult to supply to places that are too far away due to the lack of preservation technology, it is not a problem to supply it locally and to some northern provinces.

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When the northern provinces receive more meat supply, the corresponding consumption of rice and other food will be less, and then gradually rice, wheat and other food can be transferred to the south, ultimately improving the food supply level of the entire empire.

In the end, the per capita food supply of the Chu Empire has increased significantly in the past twenty years.

There is a lack of limited data in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, but based on a small number of data, it can be inferred that in the early years of the founding of the People's Republic of China, in most places under the rule of the empire, the per capita food level was only a little over 200 kilograms, and very little exceeded 250 kilograms.
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Looking at it from the perspective of later generations, the entire empire was in a state of severe famine.

By the twelfth year of Chengshun, Suzhou, which was the richest in the Chu Empire and had the highest per capita food supply, only had 320 kilograms. In many places, it was only 2560 kilograms, and in a few places it was only about 200 kilograms.

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At that time, the Chu Empire was still in a state of famine, and most of the people had never had enough to eat...

By the way, as a digression, don’t underestimate the level of the Chu Empire. In the 12th year of Chengshun, the per capita food level of the Chu Empire was almost the same as that of India in the 21st century.

In India in the 21st century, the average self-produced grain per capita is only more than 200 kilograms... which is about the same as in the early days of the Chu Empire. However, under such circumstances, they still exported grain on a large scale... which is also strange!

In the global scope of future generations, among the non-war-torn countries that ordinary people can name famous, she is the only one in a state of severe hunger...North Korea is even worse than it. According to the United Nations statistical standards, this is at least 300 kilograms.
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For comparison, generally speaking in later generations, the per capita food supply in a normal country should be maintained at more than 400 kilograms. If it is below this figure, there is a risk of famine... It is commonly known that people do not have enough to eat!

In the past twenty years in the Chu Empire, the people actually did not have enough to eat most of the time...

There is nothing we can do about it. The agricultural production technology is only at this level and there are so many people.

In the seventh year of Chengshun, that is, when the forces of the Can Ming Dynasty and the southwest garrison were initially pacified, and all large-scale internal wars were ended, when the Chu Empire fully controlled the land of China, the preliminary population count was around 80 million. And the population was still relatively small.

It continues to rise. In the past two decades, according to preliminary statistics, the population has increased by at least 100 million...

The current population of the Chu Empire is over 250 million, and the population is growing at an extremely fast rate!

Although the grain output has doubled, the population growth rate is also fast, so it is very difficult to increase the per capita grain.

However, after twenty years of hard work, especially with the basic improvement of water conservancy facilities in various places, the development of Liaodong and grasslands has increased the source of food in the Nanyang region. The Guannai area is also digging deep into food production in Huguang, Sichuan, Guangdong and Guangxi and other regions, and in the

After the artificial diversion of the Yellow River, the focus will be on developing the grain industry in Henan, Jiangbei, Anlu, Hebei, Shandong and other places.

After making great efforts, today in the 23rd year of Chengshun, according to the statistical report of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the per capita food level of the Chu Empire has increased to 300 kilograms.

Although this data is still quite correct, it is already a very remarkable achievement for the Chu Empire.

This is an achievement achieved under the premise of substantial population growth, limited agricultural technology, no use of chemical fertilizers, and no mechanized planting.

This is due to the large amount of additional grain imports from the Nanyang region and the additional grain supply obtained from the large-scale agricultural development in the Liaodong region.

If you only rely on the self-produced grains of the provinces in the Guan Nei area...don't even expect 300 kilograms, if you can get 245 kilograms, you will have to burn high incense.

The reason why there are so many food issues is because food is the most important thing for the people!

No matter how much land the Chu Empire conquered, no matter how many guns and warships the army equipped, it would have no meaning in itself to defeat the indigenous people around the world.

The strength of the military itself will not allow even one grain of food to be added to the people's rice bowls.

On the contrary, it also wastes money and food!

Only when military expansion is used to plunder food, or simply cultivated land, to expand the amount of food rations for one's own people, does this have practical significance.

Only this kind of expansion can bring about the so-called prosperous age. Otherwise, just fighting without food from the outside will mean that the war will end sooner or later with an empty stomach.

As for the external expansion of the Dachu Empire, if you look into its essence, you will find that the expansion of the empire is not for gold or silver, but only for food!

Whether it is through colonization, plundering the indigenous food in an economic way, or directly occupying the land and developing and cultivating food on your own.

All in order to obtain more food and feed the people.

This is also the core goal of the three major overseas expansion plans of the Chu Empire.

Now, these three major overseas expansions are already underway.

In the plan to build an absolute defense circle along the local coast, the Edo Tokugawa shogunate on the Fuso side has already recognized the reality. In the spring of this year, the Chu army landed on Kyushu Island on a large scale and powerfully defeated more than ten troops organized by the Tokugawa shogunate.

Wan Dajun captured many important members of the Tokugawa family alive.

Then he forced the Tokugawa family to sign the "Treaty of Chu-Hi-Hirado". This treaty was even more harsh than the conditions originally proposed by the Chu Empire.

The two most core clauses are:
To be continued...