: Difficult National Affairs

"On the first day of the seventh month in autumn, the magistrate of Linxian County, Shanxi Province, reported that there had been heavy hailstorms for three days, and more than two feet of seeds were planted, as big as goose eggs, which damaged the crops and begged for help."

"In 1911, Pinggu and Zunhua counties came together to report that there was a locust attack in the two counties and the entire county would have no harvest. We begged for mercy."

"In August of the 19th century, there was a flood in Jiangxi. No less than 100,000 people were affected in Nanchang, Jiujiang, and Nankang. Jiangxi begged for help."

"August Jiashen, Henan..."

In late August, as the autumn harvest was about to come, it seemed that even God was at odds with the Ming Dynasty. More than ten prefectures and counties were hit by disasters in succession, making the already bad situation even worse for the Ming Dynasty.

Fortunately, there are less than ten days until the autumn harvest, so after listening to the begging from various provinces and counties, Zhu Youjian slightly nodded: "It's all accepted."

Sitting in the side hall of Chengyun Hall, Zhu Youjian gave this order to Bi Ziyan, and after giving the order, he said: "The Ministry of Husbandry, Jinyiwei, and the Third Division of Dongchang sent people to verify whether it is true."

"I obey my orders..." Bi Ziyan bowed in response, and Zhu Youjian continued to ask:

"There are only ten days until the autumn harvest. The Ministry of Revenue estimates how much grain can be harvested this year."

"Business Department..." Seeing Zhu Youjian asking, Bi Ziyan thought for a moment, and then gave an estimate:

"Although the south has suffered from floods, floods, floods, and drought this year, fortunately, the disasters are only localized."

"Huguang, which is a major agricultural land, was not affected by the disaster. Although Sichuan people in eastern Sichuan also encountered drought, the scale was not large. Except for six counties that needed to be exempted, other counties in Sichuan could pay taxes normally."

Historically, the price of rice in the three provinces of Jiangnan once rose to one to two six cents per stone, which shows the severity of the drought.

"Your Highness, Yuan Cifu's son approached his subordinates this morning, saying that Yuan Cifu was ill and unable to recover, and requested to be appointed to the official position."

"Right now, the five provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Ryukyu, Shandong, and Yingzhou can only provide 60 million stones."

Zhu Youjian put the memorial aside and did not deal with it. After half an hour, the guard in Jin Yi returned to Prince Qi's Mansion with Sun Kewang's writings.

Zhu Youjian's original intention was to just glance at it and circle it red, but he saw a familiar name in this memorial, and it ranked first.

The situation in Jiangnan was so bad that Zhu Youjian didn't know how to deal with this area.

"Your Majesty, take your orders..." Upon seeing this, Bi Ziyan bowed and turned to leave. Zhu Youjian did not stop him, but after watching him leave, he turned to Wang Chengen and ordered:

"Let Yang Wenyue speed up the immigration to Yingzhou."

Just by looking at it, he was basically sure that this Sun Kewang was the Sun Kewang in his heart.

"Then the position of cabinet minister will be freed up..." Bi Ziyan was not surprised that he became the second minister. His only surprise was when Zhu Youjian conferred the title of Yuan Keli.

Bi Ziyan made an evaluation of this year's drought, that is, it is large in scale but not powerful enough.

"The Beijing-Hangzhou Railway and the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway have been repaired to Wuchang, Huguang, South Zhili and Prefecture respectively."

"Sun Kewang..." Zhu Youjian squinted his eyes. He remembered that Sun Kewang's original name was Sun Kewang, and the person who appeared in front of him was not Sun Kewang, but Sun Kewang.

Without affecting the prices of goods in the provinces, the four provinces can provide 90 million stones of rice and wheat to support the Ming Dynasty. This rice and wheat alone can save at least 20 million people.

"In this way, the food from Luchuan can be transported to Ningbo, Zhejiang in about one and a half months."

"All three provinces are suffering from drought. Judging from last year's situation, Hexi should be the only province with surplus farmland for grain production, but the scale will not be very large, only about two million shi."

Zhu Youjian was still thinking about fixing the gaps, but Bi Ziyan's words brought him back to reality.

But when he thought of Yuan Ke leading the army and working with Zhu Youjian to put down Xu Hongru's rebellion, he no longer felt strange.

Bi Ziyan told half of the situation, but even if he only told half of it, most of the stones in Zhu Youjian's heart fell to the ground.

"We are still 30 million shi away from the limit of our country's national power, which is really a blessing..."

"Including the people's food in Northern Zhili and Henan, in general, the people's food that the country can mobilize is about 200 million dan, and adding the land tax, it is 295 million dan."

"If you think it is too much, you can directly transport the grain from the Great Jinsha River Plain to the West Sea Port, and then transport it back to Daming by ship from the West Sea Port."

After handing the document to Zhu Youjian with both hands, he bowed and returned to the door, while Zhu Youjian opened the document.

Faced with this situation, it is certain that food prices in the two provinces will rise.

"Tiao Fan Jingwen took over as the chief envoy of Sichuan, and transferred Li Banghua to the cabinet as minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs."

After finishing writing, Zhu Youjian closed the memorial and continued to work on other memorials.

"Although Southern Zhili is experiencing drought, the situation this year is generally pretty good. It can be self-sufficient and does not need support from the court."

"Fortunately, Hong Gechen of Southwest China managed things well. As early as the ninth year of Tianqi, he started to build the Jinglong Railway from Kunming. Therefore, the Jinglong Railway in Yunnan has reached Longchuan in the west and the border between Yunnan and Sichuan in the north."

The food from these provinces was supposed to be sent to the north to stabilize food prices, but now that it has been eaten up, the people in the north will naturally be left hungry.

"After the issuance of Tianqi Tongbao, how much has the fire consumption of local yamen been reduced?"

However, after he left, the two village officials of Baishui Village did not make Baishui Village among the best as before, but became mediocre.

"As for the Beijing-West Railway, Beijing-Jiaxing Railway, and Beijing-Long Railway, they will be built to Ningxia, Gongchang, and Hanzhong respectively."

"Bring me the documents from Zhen'an Mayor Sun Kewang."

It is already the fifteenth year of the Apocalypse. If Zhu Youjian lets Yuan Keli go home to recuperate, maybe he can live for two more years, like Zhao Nanxing and Ye Xianggao now.

In Yunnan alone, Sun Ke hoped to be able to raise 200,000 troops and support the supply of military supplies for the northern and western front armies at the same time.

Looking at Zhu Youjian's appearance, Bi Ziyan didn't know why Zhu Youjian was in a bad mood. He couldn't help but comfort him: "Your Highness, 100 million stones is already a lot."

Faced with the pressure brought by Zhu Youjian, Bi Ziyan bowed without being humble or overbearing:

If there is a shortage of 20 million shi of grain, there will be an additional gap of 20 million shi. The 50 million people in Jiangxi and Zhejiang will have their annual rations reduced by 62 kilograms.

In the view of Bi Ziyan and others, there is nothing wrong with this, because in recent years, drought has been in the north, and there is no harm in storing more grain in the north.

If he insists on letting Yuan Keli serve as a cabinet minister and continues to work hard, I am afraid that Yuan Keli's end will be in these two years.

This is easy to see from the fact that Zhang Xianzhong and others fought all the way to Fengyang, but then turned around and went to Henan, Huguang, Sichuan, and Shaanxi.

"The final situation in Guangdong and Guangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Shandong, Yingzhou and Ryukyu Prefecture..."

"This year, the four northeastern provinces only need 20 million shi to stabilize grain production, and Shanxi, Henan, and Shaanxi only need 50 million shi to stabilize grain production."

According to the cost of relocating grain, each person is ten dan, and each person is given at least ten acres of land. If he wants to relocate the population of the three provinces, even if only half of the population is relocated, Zhu Youjian will have to provide nearly 400 million acres of cultivated land and 400 million dan of rice and wheat.

Looking at it this way, Zhu Youjian is not surprised that the drought in the north has subsided slightly in history, but farmers are still unable to eat.

With this in mind, Wang Chengen packed up his things and left, and Zhu Youjian also picked up a memorandum from the Ministry of Personnel.

If this shortcoming is still there, then Zhu Youjian can make good use of him.

At his age, it may be possible to get rid of Sun Chuanting and others, but it is just a dream to get rid of Li Dingguo, Zhu Ciran and others.

However, this is only temporary. For officials who want to be corrupt, they can come up with countless ways to deal with the court, and Zhu Youjian can only find and fill in the gaps.

In the north, Zhu Youjian mobilized all the remaining grain in one go, and the scale after arrival could reach 130 million dan.

"Therefore, the Ministry of Revenue estimates that the amount of land and grain that the government can collect this year is about 95 million dan, which is much better than the situation in the previous two years."

The people in Jiangnan had money, so they could buy grain without restraint. As long as they were hungry, the price of grain would rise throughout the Ming Dynasty.

The increase in food prices in Jiangnan this year is to ensure that the people in Jiangnan can survive next year.

Therefore, when the "Sushan" bottomed out, Zhu Youjian also put down his spoon, raised his head and looked at Bi Ziyan, and said:

"Although there is enough food this year, we must take precautions before they happen."

While the drought in the north subsided, it worsened in the south, and the population of the three provinces accounted for nearly half of the population of the Ming Dynasty. If the three provinces could not supply food, they could only eat food from Sichuan, Huguang, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian.

"In the case of Cochin and Old Port, sea transportation is the most cost-effective."

Compared to the horrific droughts of the past two years, which were so devastated that the land was covered with thousands of miles of land, this year's drought is a bit more ordinary. At least God is kind and has given various drought-prone areas a few rains before autumn.

As long as the three provinces have enough food, next year the Ming Dynasty's provinces other than the three provinces can transport food to Jiangnan to stabilize food prices.

Even the Qing army, which controlled the world, would run out of food, but the Ming army did not.

"According to the report of the chief secretaries of the four provinces of Yunnan, Luchuan, Jiaozhi, and Jiugang, the four provinces can produce at least 240 million tons of rice and wheat this year. Excluding the farm grain and the rations of the people in the four provinces, as well as the sea grain transported to the vassals,

The four provinces can support the imperial court with about 90 million shi."

"Yingzhou, Guangdong, Guangxi, Ryukyu Prefecture's civilian food, and official food stabilize the four northeastern provinces."

In the history of the Chongzhen Dynasty, it was not that Jiangnan refused to send money and food to Beijing, but that Jiangnan was either flooded or flooded, and could not give much money to help the north.

"Let it be vacant for the time being. As for the position of Minister of the Ministry of Personnel..." Zhu Youjian pondered for a moment, but no suitable candidate appeared in his mind.

What he was most worried about was that Sun Kewang had studied the Yanshan textbook, and it turned out that he was proficient in literary, military and military strategies, and his ambition was not reduced at all.

Therefore, this batch of grain is enough to feed the people of the three provinces for more than two years. In the final analysis, Zhu Youjian did this to prepare for the severe drought in Jiangnan next year.

"Luchuan, Jiugang, Fujian, and Jiaozhi grain crops will all be transferred to Jiangxi and Zhejiang."

Sun Kewang was not Li Dingguo's opponent in history, let alone the Ming Dynasty now at its peak?

"Of the 95 million stone fields allocated to provide grain, how many can be transferred to the disaster areas?"

He was thinking that if a drought breaks out in the three provinces of Jiangnan and the fields except paddy fields have no output, then what a huge food gap Ming Dynasty will have to face.

"There is nothing we can do about the rise in food prices. According to my decree, we have adjusted the civilian food supply of Sichuan, Huguang, Hexi, Beizhili, Shandong, and official food to stabilize Shaanxi and Shanxi."

What he wanted to ask was who would give the vacant cabinet minister position.

It is good to use mechanical development, but time no longer allows Zhu Youjian to do this.

Zhu Youjian ordered the Jin Yiwei at the door. Upon hearing this, the Jin Yiwei bowed in return and immediately went to do the work.
To be continued...