"Change rice into mulberry"

These four words are a policy introduced during the Jiajing period, which transformed most of the fields in Zhejiang into mulberry fields to produce silk.

In more modern terms, this is called industrial upgrading.

But such an upgrade led to an embarrassing thing.

After the people in South Zhili saw that the lives of the people in Zhejiang had improved because of the change from rice to mulberry, they also followed suit. This led to South Zhili and Zhejiang both changing from rice to mulberry, and most of the fields were covered with mulberry fields.

Looking at it this way, because of the change from rice to mulberry, the people have a better and more comfortable life, and the court can also use miscellaneous items to increase tax revenue. It seems that the situation is very good.

But there is a crisis hidden under such great benefits.

Southern Zhili and Zhejiang have one-third of the world's population. If the Ming Dynasty actually had 150 million people, there would be at least 50 million people here.

After the original local cultivated land is cultivated, it can not only feed 50 million people, but also produce food to feed 10 million more people. Therefore, it can go north to support the north, which is a good thing.

But as I said just now, such a good thing comes with a danger.

That is, after the conversion from rice to mulberry, the cultivated land that could originally support 60 million people was cut in half, and now it can only support 30 million people.

But there are 50 million people living on this land, so it means that 20 million people need to import food to fill their stomachs.

Where do they import their food? Quite simply, only food from Sichuan, Huguang, and Jiangxi can satisfy their appetite.

Therefore, they transferred the grain to these three provinces, and after the grain from the three provinces arrived in Jiangnan, it would be detained and sold to the people of Jiangnan at a high price to make profits.

The grain from the canal was seized and exploited to feed the people in the south of the Yangtze River, but the north still needed food.

Therefore, the self-interested Jiangnan merchant group began to use another method to absorb profits.

When the grain is harvested in the three provinces, they will buy and store the grain at a high price, and then sell the grain to the people in Jiangnan to make the first profit.

The imperial court would blame the south for the lack of grain, and officials from Sichuan, Huguang, and Jiangxi would point the blame at Jiangnan, but Jiangnan would find various excuses.

At this time, due to the late arrival of grain from the north, the price of grain began to rise, and there was even a famine.

By this time, one stone of grain, which originally cost only three hundred cents in the country of origin, could be sold for eight or nine hundred cents per stone when transported to the north, tripling the profit.

In this era, the ability to triple profits can be said to have completely aroused evil thoughts in people's hearts.

As a result, a huge interest group began to emerge.

Zhu Youjian wants to transport grain directly to Liaodong? Yes, the officials will not stop you, but if something happens to one of your ships at sea, the officials belonging to the three parties of Qi, Chu, and Zhejiang will impeach you.

It's as if what you were in trouble was not a ship, but a whole batch of grain.

As for how the ship sank? Whoever benefits is naturally responsible for it.

Unlike increasing commercial taxes, food is the simplest and most accessible profit-making tool for all parties in this era.

Commercial taxes and miscellaneous items are not important to the Qi Party and the Chu Party, but are more important to the Zhejiang Party.

But when it comes to food, whoever touches it will die...

Historically, Shen Tingyang transported grain by sea with the support of Chongzhen. Just transporting a batch of grain saved Chongzhen tens of thousands of taels of silver and allowed the north to breathe a little, which shows the importance of grain.

But the situation at that time was that the world was already overrun by rogue bandits, and the capable officials in the Qi Party, Chu Party, Zhejiang Party, and Donglin Party had all been killed by Tianqi, Wei Zhongxian, and Chongzhen in more than twenty years of sanctions.

A group of wine bags and rice bags were left, they could only fool Chongzhen, but they did not dare to trick him.

Because he really dared to kill, and once he killed, he would kill his whole family.

It's just that there are too many people with political vision and means at the moment. Not to mention Zhu Youjian, they tied the good emperor brothers together on the pirate ship. It is estimated that the two brothers fell into the water and died.

Therefore, it is what Zhu Youjian must do to come up with a safe method that does not irritate the nerves of the parties who benefit from it.

He walked away from Man Gui's story and looked at Yang Lian at the first glance.

"Yang Geizhong believes that if we use sea transportation, is it feasible to transport grain to Liaodong?"

Zhu Youjian tested Yang Lian as soon as he opened his mouth, just because Yang Lian was one of the few ministers in the Donglin Party who did not have any vested interest groups behind him.

If even Yang Lian doesn't dare to face shipping, then the rest of the Donglin Party will even less dare.

Zhu Youjian's words made everyone look at Yang Lian, and he was not a fool. He just said:

"If the matter is beneficial to the court, it can be done, but His Highness needs to think about how many times the Ming Dynasty can withstand His Highness's efforts."

Yang Lian vaguely reminded Zhu Youjian, which also made it clear that Yang Lian wanted to do it, but if he did it, there would definitely be opposition within the Donglin Party.

The supporters of the Donglin Party are all country gentry, and they also rely on grain and land for their livelihood. It is difficult to guarantee that they have nothing to do with the grain issue.

The Ming Dynasty is now like an old man suffering from all kinds of diseases.

If you are careful and get rid of various minor illnesses bit by bit, you can live for a while, but serious illnesses will still break out.

But if you think about getting rid of the biggest pain all at once, you will only make it die suddenly.

In order to use sea transportation, the emperor's majesty must first be promoted to the highest level, and the things that promote the emperor's majesty are nothing more than wars and political means.

Either be like Jiajing and play the entire court with applause, or be like Ming Chengzu and Ming Taizu and win consecutively.

Or, like Zhu Jianshen, one of Zhu Youjian's ancestors, Ming Xianzong, he grabbed it with both hands.

But it is impossible for Zhu Youjian to play political tricks and fight again.

Therefore, he can only rely on his good brother...

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian also put away his thoughts and said to Man Gui, Sun Yingyuan, Qi Jin and others:

"I will set off back to the capital tomorrow. After returning to the capital, I will ask the chief envoys in various places to post notices to inform the people of the Royal Horse Supervisor's recruitment requirements and the reclamation of wasteland at the foot of Yanshan Mountain."

"Man Gui, please send someone back to the Xuan Mansion to recruit troops. By the way, take a look at General Qi's military training methods. If there is anything we can learn from, temporarily supervise the three guards of Yu Lin."

"Huachun, you stay in the military camp and receive Shizhu soldiers and General Qin for me tomorrow. The day after tomorrow, when the three martial arts craftsmen from the Ministry of Engineering arrive, we can start repairing the imperial mausoleum."

After saying this, Zhu Youjian said nothing more. Qi and Jin handed over their hands to compile, Cao Huachun nodded, and Yang Lian remained silent.

Seeing that he was silent, Zhu Youjian didn't say anything, but retreated with Wang Chengen.

However, not long after the two left, a Jin Yiwei suddenly walked towards Zhu Youjian with a handwritten letter and handed it over:

"Your Highness, things have changed. I'm afraid you need to know..."

"Huh?" Hearing this, Zhu Youjian had a bad premonition and took the handwritten letter and read ten lines of it.

There was not much content in the letter, just one sentence: "Qin Liangyu has led three thousand troops from Youyang to the north."

Zhu Youjian did not expect that Qin Liangyu, after sending Qin Bangping and other three thousand Shizhu white pole soldiers, would train three thousand Youyang white pole soldiers to go north in a short period of time.

As a result, his plan to encircle and suppress She Chongming was flawed, but on the other hand, it also meant that he had to play his cards better in the north.

"We must change our plan to encircle and suppress She Chongming..."
Chapter completed!