As the first-year pioneers returned to their hometowns after the autumn harvest, there was a sensation throughout northern China. The imperial court soon received memorials from various places reporting to the poor and untouchable people in the north, and there was a strong desire to immigrate to the Northeast, reminding Sheng
Make preparations for the state capital and enclosure of your place of residence.
The cabinet has increased the number of immigrants registered with local governments before the end of the year, and it is likely to surge to 100,000. This expenditure on food rations, cattle, and farm equipment is a large amount.
Lu Tiaoyang, who was in charge of the general, did not dare to neglect, and quickly arranged for various places to purchase a large amount of seeds, cattle, farm tools, etc., and transfer them to the Northeast as soon as spring began. In order to prevent many immigrants from having enough to eat in the first year and nearly starving to death in the Northeast from happening again.
, Lu Tiaoyang is tired and ill, and has not had a good year this year.
Lu was tired of regulating Yang, and Zhang Juzheng was even more tired. The imperial court had just decided on the "water conservancy management project of the entire river basin from the Yellow River to the sea", and Zhang Juzheng became the prime minister. Although Wang Guoguang and the six ministries can share specific affairs, the general manager needs to coordinate with the local government.
Too much.
In order to save time, Zhu Yijun specially ordered the cabinet ministers not to leave the palace but to work overtime in Wenyuan Pavilion. After working like this for more than a month, Zhu Yijun was shocked when he saw Zhang Juzheng lose weight rapidly and finally lost his shape, like a paper man.
After some hard work, Zhu Yijun asked Zhang Juzheng to put down his official duties and rest for five days. In addition, he asked the medical school to arrange health doctors to regularly provide medical consultations and diet adjustments to senior officials above the minister's level. Two of them were arranged for Zhang Juzheng to supervise his work, rest and diet.
.
Although all the cabinet members were extremely tired, Zhu Yijun, the black-hearted boss, did not care. After arranging health care doctors and giving out nutritional supplements, he still advanced state affairs at his own pace. At the end of the twelfth month of the third year of Wanli, the Chinese New Year was about to begin, and he heard another story about
A report on the water conservancy improvement projects to be implemented in the fourth year of Wanli.
During this report, Zhang Juzheng calculated the food needs for Zhu Yijun in the four years of Wanli and expressed concerns about the upcoming major project. The money problem is not big, but can the food be sustained after such a big disaster in the Huaihe River?
After Zhu Yijun listened to Zhang Juzheng's report, he was really a little nervous at first. Later, after thinking it through, he felt that he should continue to work.
Since the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development has not kept statistics on the country's total grain production for many years, and only extrapolated it from grain taxes, the grain output estimated by Zhang Juzheng is actually very inaccurate. At least the data on evaded grain taxes has not been included.
among statistics.
After Zhu Yijun took charge of Jinyiwei, he made a major expansion of Jinyiwei in the second year of Wanli, increased internal division of labor, and established the Bureau of Statistics.
There are not many people in this bureau, but they are highly qualified and capable. They mainly conduct sample surveys and data analysis in various places in accordance with the survey methods taught by the emperor and the survey tasks assigned by the emperor. They are considered to be specially engaged in social surveys for the emperor.
Judging from the conclusions drawn by the Bureau of Statistics from spot checks of data and comprehensive intelligence analysis, except for the Huanghuai region in the third year of Wanli, other places were not affected by major disasters. Grain production was an ordinary year for the country. Moreover, the promotion of sweet potatoes and potatoes was also slightly small.
If it works, the food problem should not be big.
And although the Huanghuai River was hit by the disaster last year, it was already autumn when the Gaojiayan burst, and the rice had already been filled and even harvested in some areas. After the flood receded, a small half was harvested, so that the ground would not be starved. In addition, Changping in various places in the south of the Yangtze River
The warehouse support allowed the victims to survive until the autumn harvest in the fourth year of Wanli.
However, these are common sense judgments. Zhu Yijun cannot guarantee how many black hands will be involved in the entire process of relieving victims. If there is large-scale personal enrichment and hoarding, big trouble will really arise.
Is it possible to delay the construction of major water conservancy projects for a year because of the Huanghuai floods? What if there is another disaster next year?
According to Zhu Yijun's plan, he must complete the basic water conservancy construction of farmland across the country before the coldest period of the Little Ice Age. Otherwise, the massive reduction in grain production will make him miserable, and one mistake may even drag the entire nation into the abyss. Therefore, the Huanghuai River
Water conservancy management cannot wait, nor can it afford it.
In Zhu Yijun's mind, in order to prepare for the upcoming large-scale natural disasters across the country, in addition to implementing water conservancy improvements across the country, it is necessary to launch wars. But launching wars requires more national strength and food support - even if there are weapons brought by time-travelers,
After occupying a piece of land, it will take at least several years to return it to China.
Zhu Yijun often feels that time is running out, and this is the most important reason. He read an article in later generations that the coldest period of the Little Ice Age probably began in 1600 - less than fifteen years ago.
. Even if it hadn’t started from that time, it is certain that natural disasters would still occur frequently in the middle and late Wanli period.
Since there is no way to retreat, we can only move forward. After in-depth thinking and two discussions with the cabinet, Zhu Yijun adopted a radical and bold approach to solve the Huanghuai disaster. The general idea is that if the problem cannot be solved, solve the problem that caused it.
People - intends to lure a large number of victims out of the disaster area to reduce the pressure on disaster relief.
Therefore, at the end of the third year of Wanli, the imperial court updated the policy on land granting in the Northeast: starting from the sixth year of Wanli, those who immigrated to the Northeast would not be granted more than 400 acres of land; after the ninth year of Wanli, the number of individual lands granted would not exceed 300 acres.
Just as Zhu Yijun, who was determined to do the reverse operation against all opinions, expected, the landless poor and wealthy branches simply could not accept such a decrease - by February of the fourth year of Wanli, the number of registered immigrants in the states and counties north of the Yellow River had doubled
Two times, the total reached an astonishing 400,000 Ding. - And behind these Dingkou, there are the elderly, women and children in the same family as him, who are not included in the statistics of Dingkou. If they are all added up to calculate the population, it will be
It's a terrifying number.
With the beginning of the immigration wave, many northern landowners, like Mr. Wang in Dengzhou, Shandong last year, found that their fields may face the dilemma of having no one to rent them.
Therefore, just like Mr. Wang from Shandong, it became the instinctive choice of the landlords to recruit refugees and induce immigrants. They used incredible land rents ranging from 35% to 40% to attract refugees and relocated people to come from their homes.
Plow the fields - and promise to take care of the food until next autumn's harvest.
Changes also occurred in Jiubian during the Ming Dynasty. A large amount of farmland was donated by the powerful due to the salt auction. At this time, there were also military landowners. In the third year of Wanli, with the large number of disaster victims and relocated people in the Huaihe River, Jiubian was originally
A large number of abandoned fields also began to have tenants.
The soldiers who achieved first-level merit in Jiubian became small landowners for the first time in history. And the demonstration effect of their entry into the middle level of the empire caused a huge change in the offensive and defensive posture of the entire Jiubian. There were so many people who dared to fight, and the Tatars
The heads of prisoners became the hardest currency.
These heads were wanted not only by the officers and soldiers who wanted to be granted land, but also by the Jurchen cavalry who participated in these wars. For the sake of their families who were waiting to be fed, they would not let go of every fighting opportunity to get their heads.
Dong Tuzi on the outskirts of Jizhen suffered a disaster under this background. In a sortie in March of the fourth year of Wanli, Dong Tuzi's main force was bitten by the Jurchen cavalry, and was finally killed by General Zhang Chen and Ning Yuanbo.
Attacked from both sides and made dumplings - in this single battle, 8,600 heads were obtained. Thus, a large number of small landowners with military merit were born.
Divide the land, recruit people, divide the land, recruit people! In the fourth year of Wanli, many people felt that they had changed the world, and they couldn't remember when the empire started to lack people - there was a shortage of people everywhere!
The unprecedented great undertakings of Salt Administration Reform, Northeast Development, and Huanghuai Management began to exert their unparalleled power at the end of the third year of Wanli. By the fourth year of Wanli, an unstoppable trend had already formed - it turns out
The lifeless Ming Empire finally burst into life with the investment of large amounts of money and the large-scale circulation of goods, food, and people.
According to the records of contemporary literati and many historians of later generations, when describing the great changes that began in the fourth year of Wanli, the most commonly used sentence is: "In the third year of Wanli, the river broke through Gaojiayan. The emperor cited the Huanghuai Project as a guide and supplemented it with
The great development of the Northeast is the beginning of the empire getting rid of the old and embracing the new; the rising sun and the rising moon are the foundation for a strong national power."