"This year's severe drought has indeed subsided greatly, and water sources have been cut off in many places..."

In the Zhongxia Palace, Zhu Youxiao was sitting behind Long Yu to handle the memorial, and sitting in front of them were Gu Bingqian, Bi Ziyan and Wen Tiren who had come from the capital to report on the affairs.

The person talking about it now is Wen Tiren, and after Xu Guangqi took office, he was recommended by Zhu Youjian to become the Minister of the Ministry of Industry. This made Zhou Yanru of the Ministry of Punishment almost break his teeth.

But Shi Fenglai was happy, thinking that the Zhejiang Party had picked up a minister of the Ministry of Industry without doing anything.

Although Yuan Keli and the others were uncomfortable, Xu Guangqi was indeed too old and could only allow him to become an official.

As for Gu Bingqian, this old fox said nothing or did nothing, he just watched the show quietly.

He knew very well why the King of Qi recommended Wen Tiren to be the minister of the Ministry of Works? To put it bluntly, it was because Wen Tiren followed the principle of "not doing well".

Because the Ming Dynasty was engaged in infrastructure construction, the current Ministry of Industry was the place with the largest inflow and outflow of money and food.

If Wen Tiren didn't do well, he would do as King Qi said if something happened. This was the approach that was most in line with King Qi's ideas, because Wen Tiren would copy it completely and would not let anyone below him change it.

As long as he copies the policy issued by Zhu Youjian and the people below him do not change it, King Qi will not be able to blame him if something happens.

This principle may make many things rigid, but what King Qi wants right now is rigidity.

"Since the beginning of autumn, the drought conditions in Huguang, Nanzhili, Guangdong, and Sichuan have all subsided. During the rainy season, it rains heavily, and many rivers have flowed. Even the two provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi have also had several rains..."

"The Ministry of Industry has built a large number of dams and reservoirs in the past few years, strengthened both sides of the Yellow River, and marshaled the Yellow River..."

"The water in reservoirs in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces is enough to support people to grow vegetables for several months, and will not cause a large number of people to look for wild vegetables."

"Coupled with the fact that the Imperial Horse Supervisor properly adjusted the grain, the Changping Granary was opened to release grain, and the local Chief Secretary did a good job in resettling the people, the price of grain in Shaanxi and Shanxi has dropped to 400 Wen per stone and 500 Wen per stone respectively."

Wen Tiren is indeed very talkative. With his words, the contributions of Zhu Youjian, Xu Guangqi, and Wang Shunding in the past few years have almost become his achievements.

It's just that the people sitting here are all elite people of this era, so although everyone listened, they didn't think so in their hearts.

Zhu Youxiao was processing the memorial and kept listening. Although he was a little dissatisfied with Wen Tiren's report, he was generally satisfied.

After finishing a memorial, he slowly raised his head and looked at the three ministers:

"Why are grain prices in Shanxi higher than in Shaanxi, where the drought is more severe? Hasn't Beizhili been adjusting grains to provide relief?"

"Long live..." Bi Ziyan bowed and then replied:

"Shaanxi has undergone several relocations. So far, there are only more than 3.8 million people in the province. However, there has never been a large-scale water shortage in the 800-mile Qinchuan River in Guanzhong and the 600-mile Hetao River."

"As a result, nearly 18 million acres of cultivated land along the Weihe River, Jinghe River, and Yellow River have been cultivated."

"Last year there were 5 million people in Shaanxi, so there was naturally not enough food to eat. But now the population has dropped sharply. Although there is rarely a shortage of food, but including grain adjustments from Henan and Sichuan, it is actually about the same."

Having said this, Bi Ziyan bowed again:

"Looking at Shanxi, according to the local yellow registration report at the beginning of the year, Shanxi has a population of 6.97 million. Although the province has more than 52 million acres of cultivated land, 70% of it is dry land and only 30% is irrigated land."

"If you want to feed nearly 7 million Shanxi people with less than 15 million acres of irrigated land, it is indeed..."

After finishing his words, Bi Ziyan stopped talking.

"How much grain will Beizhili plan to transfer to Shanxi this year?" Zhu Youxiao naturally leaned back, put his hands on the armrests, and frowned.

"According to the estimates of the Royal Horse Supervisor and the Ministry of Household Affairs, we should be able to transfer 7 million dan without any money. The process will cost about 300,000 dan."

Bi Ziyan answered politely, but Zhu Youxiao frowned and asked, "Is this food enough for the people of Shanxi?"

"Of course this is not enough..." Bi Ziyan replied calmly, without any panic.

Compared with Zhu Youjian's aura, Zhu Youxiao's aura is much weaker.

For those of them who have been oppressed by Zhu Youjian's aura, responding to Zhu Youxiao's questions is difficult...

"You are confident. I hope to hear that you have arranged things properly."

Zhu Youxiao narrowed his eyes, and Bi Ziyan continued to answer respectfully:

"I took a look at the general situation of each province this year. Among them, Sichuan and Henan are enough to supply Shanxi and Shaanxi."

"Enough to supply?" Zhu Youxiao didn't believe it, but Bi Ziyan was confident: "Enough to supply."

"Why?" Zhu Youxiao asked, and Bi Ziyan replied calmly:

"It's all thanks to Sun Chuanting to clear up the illegal gentry, and Li Banghua's meritorious service in investigating the land."

"Say..." Zhu Youxiao had a bad premonition.

Facing his premonition, Bi Ziyan spoke eloquently:

"In June of this year, Li Banghua worked with more than 7,000 officials in Sichuan for half a year, and asked the Western Army Governor's Office to help with the inventory, and finally cleared the acres of land in Sichuan."

"After the gentry was cleared, the total cultivated land in Sichuan was more than 276,000 hectares, but the people of Sichuan were only 4.25 million people..."

Bi Ziyan's words made Zhu Youxiao subconsciously squeeze the armrest, but he quickly let go.

This move was seen by Gu Bingqian and the others, and they couldn't help but feel a little happy.

"As expected, Long Live is easier to deal with than the young and mature King Qi..."

This may be a rare time for the three of them to reach a tacit understanding in their hearts, and this rareness is also based on the fact that they were suppressed by Zhu Youjian's aura of being neither happy nor angry.

Today's Zhu Youxiao is only twenty-six years old. Compared with Gu Bingqian and other veterans who have been selected through the party struggles, he is still too young.

It's not that his methods are not good, but compared to Zhu Youjian, his growth rate is too slow.

Of course, he could usually do what Zhu Youjian said, "not showing emotion or anger on his face", but things in Sichuan did not allow him to settle down.

Calculated on the basis of one hectare and one hundred acres, Sichuan has a total of more than 27.6 million acres of farmland. Only fifty years ago, during Zhang Juzheng's New Deal inventory, Sichuan only had more than 13 million acres of cultivated land. Now, suddenly, there are more than 13 million acres of farmland in Sichuan.

More than doubled.

Is it because the people of Sichuan are hardworking? So many fields were cultivated in fifty years?

Of course not...

To be clear, these fields have been cultivated a long time ago. Maybe there weren't as many as fifty years ago, but they're not much different.

The reason why the imperial court never knew about it was because of the large and small Sichuan gentry who were killed by Sun Chuanting.

The amount hidden here is not a small amount, it is more than 14 million acres of cultivated land. Even according to the thirty-one tax, nearly one million stones of rice and wheat can be handed over.

According to Zhu Youjian's new policy of one out of ten, starting from next year, Sichuan will be able to contribute 7 million shi, rice and wheat every year, with a discount of at least 3 million taels.

During the Wanli period, Sichuan turned over only one million taels of rice and wheat every year, and about one million taels of miscellaneous silver, with at least 1.4 million taels of silver.

It can be said that the promulgation of Zhu Youjian's New Deal, coupled with Sun Chuanting's "killing", more than doubled Sichuan's taxes.

Zhu Youxiao was not sure whether there would be such serious concealment in other southern provinces, but based on his character as an emperor, he would rather believe that...

So after he calmed down, he was wondering if he could use Sun Chuanting to deal with the gentry in other southern provinces?

But as soon as this thought came to his mind, the figure of his younger brother appeared in his mind.

"With my younger brother's character, I'm afraid he won't let me use Sun Chuanting for this kind of thing..."

Zhu Youxiao narrowed his eyes and finally gave up. While giving up, he said gloomily to Bi Ziyan: "Continue..."

"Yes..." Bi Ziyan bowed in return, and then continued to explain:

"The Ministry of Revenue has calculated that if we use Sichuan's fields to feed the people of Sichuan, there will be more than enough grain. Therefore, we can purchase 10 million shi of grain from Sichuan and transport it northward, but we will lose about 10% of the grain."

"In addition, the Royal Horse Supervisor and the Chief Secretary of Henan this year can collect 6 million shi of rice and wheat, and can purchase an additional 15 million shi, of which 8 million shi can be allocated to support Shaanxi, and the remainder can be used to support Shanxi."

"Including the grain from Beizhili and the losses on the road, 18 million stones can be transported to Shanxi."

"These, together with the sweet potatoes and potatoes grown in Shanxi's irrigated fields, should be able to stabilize food prices."

"If the drought in Shanxi ends next year, the people of Shanxi will be at peace..."

"In addition, the imperial court should be able to collect 69 million stone fields this year."

"Changed more?" Zhu Youxiao raised his eyebrows, obviously this thing made him very happy.

"Long live the return, yes..." Bi Ziyan responded first, and then explained:

"Thanks to the autumn rain, Henan, Shandong, Hexi, and Jiugang will have a good harvest this year, so the land tax will be larger."

"Among them, Old Port is the best, but the rice and wheat from Old Port are a bit hard and not as soft as the rice from the Central Plains."

Bi Ziyan took up the habit of reporting to Zhu Youjian, which was to bring some common people's feelings, because Zhu Youjian liked to hear this kind of thing the most.

However, the two brothers had very different personalities. Zhu Youjian liked what he heard, but Zhu Youxiao didn't like it and didn't care, so he waved his hand and said impatiently:

"It doesn't matter whether it's hard or not, just put it in the warehouse. If there is still a severe drought in Shanxi and Shaanxi next year, we will transfer this batch of rice to two places and sell it at a reduced price to stabilize the price of rice."

"I accept my order..." Bi Ziyan responded, and Zhu Youxiao also looked at Wen Tiren relaxedly:

"How's the railroad going?"

Zhu Youxiao was very concerned about this, because it related to whether he could travel thousands of miles away and get out of the boundaries of Beizhili that restricted him.

"The construction schedule of each railway is in a hurry, and I often go to supervise it. The roadbed of each railway has already left the territory of Beizhili."

"It has been determined that the railways that can be opened this year are the Jingmen and Beijing-Tianjin railways. One is expected to open to traffic on September 20th, and the other is expected to open to traffic on the 25th of the twelfth lunar month."

"As for the other seven railways, they are building roadbeds and laying rails at the same time. Although it will take fifteen years to be fully opened to traffic, sections of them have been opened to traffic in these fifteen years."

"For example, the Beijing-Jiajia Railway, Beijing-Western Railway and Beijing-Long Railway are expected to be completed in eight, 13 and 15 years, but in fact they will be able to reach Taiyuan directly from Beijing in three years and Xi'an in five years."

"Several other railways are similar. The Beijing-Liaoning Railway will take seven years to build, but it will be built to Yanshan County in one year. By then, it will only take six hours to reach Dading Palace."

"There is still a twelve-year construction period for the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway, but..."

Wen Tiren was very good at finding good words. He knew Zhu Youxiao's character well and knew that the emperor was free-spirited by nature and always hoped to climb high and look far ahead.

Therefore, he did not specifically say how many years the construction period would take to make the emperor dissatisfied or indifferent, but instead stated the specific completion time of a certain section of the route.

For example, he said "six hours to Yanshan County", and eighteen hours to Taiyuan three years later...

These are particularly attractive to Zhu Youxiao, so even Zhu Youxiao was very pleased with him, and gave him a rare compliment: "My brother did not make a mistake in choosing you..."

"I'm scared..." Wen Tiren stood up, shook his head, and returned the greeting.

Compared with Bi Ziyan and Gu Bingqian who were "pretending to be deaf and mute" next to him, his humble appearance was simply in the heart of an emperor.
To be continued...