The grain output of the Han Dynasty increased year by year, but the problem of food shortage became more and more serious.
There are all kinds of problems, and there are many fire dragons burning warehouses in remote places, but those are small problems that are not worth mentioning.
There is only one real core reason, and that is the large-scale population explosion.
Since the introduction of the poll tax quota, people's enthusiasm for having children has been aroused.
For every additional child in the family, there will be a large amount of additional income, an additional labor force, and an additional income from betrothal gifts.
Compared with these, family love and other things have to take a back seat.
Driven by huge profits, the people themselves are frantically giving birth to children without the need for government persuasion and guidance.
When Li Yunze first came to power, the population in the world was just over 40 million including slaves and even the savages living in the mountains and forests.
Twenty years later, after the army went out to sweep the caves and wiped out the Xiongnu in one fell swoop, the population had directly exceeded tens of millions.
At that time, the Han Dynasty reclaimed a large number of new acres and improved farming capabilities, which increased production and was barely able to support the demand for food.
But no matter how much it increases, it will still be the level of productivity in the agricultural era.
After the Hungarian War, the large-scale young population started to have children again. Every family started with five or six children.
This exponential population growth has exceeded the upper limit of the Han Dynasty's current food production capacity.
As this problem became more prominent, someone from the DPRK and the Central Government proposed to Li Yunze that the private population growth rate should be limited.
Li Yunze's response was simple, "How many people are in your family?"
The man responded, "There are sixteen wives, concubines, and children in the house."
Li Yunze then said, "Then starting from your family, how about your children not being allowed to have children?"
The man became anxious on the spot, "Why!? The children in the minister's family still want to carry on the family line, why shouldn't they be born!"
Li Yunze smiled and waved his hand, signaling the palace guards to send his whole family to a deserted island overseas.
Since it cannot be suppressed on its own, and productivity in the agricultural era cannot be improved on a large scale, the only solution is to go outwards.
Expand, migrate. Expand, migrate again!
Liu She's Korea received a huge population migration because he occupied the Savage Islands.
Although the development level of these islands is not high, the land is extremely fertile because they are all volcanic ash geology, rich in minerals, and the yield of farmland is extremely high.
So after pacifying the savages on the islands, a large number of Han people took ships to the islands and took over the original farmland cultivated by the savages.
However, compared to the rapidly growing population of Han Dynasty, this is just a drop in the bucket.
On the northern prairie, a large number of Han people also poured in to seek a living.
From the Monan Protectorate to the Grassland Protectorate, from the Beihai Protectorate to the Mobei Protectorate, a massive population has poured in.
Except for the Loop, Li Yunze restricted the number of migratory people in other places.
This is naturally not because Li Yunze wants to leave living space for the tribes on the grassland and give them the opportunity to develop again and threaten Middle-earth.
Simply because he knows the relevant knowledge in this area.
Although the prairie area is huge, there are also many pastures.
But in fact, outside of the Hetao area, most of the prairie has desert geology.
When those pastures are reclaimed, the sand underneath can only be seen with a few hoe digs to a depth of less than half a meter.
Once large-scale land reclamation is launched, the only result will be rapid desertification, followed by a series of geological problems such as dust storms and land degradation.
Therefore, Li Yunze prohibited reclamation on the grassland and only allowed grazing.
Moreover, the livestock capacity of each pasture has a quota, and it is not allowed to exceed it.
At the same time, cattle grazing is encouraged and the number of sheep is reduced.
Compared with cattle, sheep that eat grass directly to the roots cause greater damage to the geology and are more likely to cause desertification.
Therefore, the governorates in various places restricted the number of migratory people, built cities and roads, designated pastures in various places, and did not allow nomadic herding.
Once the population becomes too large, families will migrate out.
Li Yunze knew very well that once the grasslands were reclaimed without restraint, more than a hundred years later, the Han Dynasty would face trouble from the north again.
As for the remaining tribes on the grassland, Li Yunze naturally moved them all away.
No matter how big or small, all tribes encountered by the Han army were moved away.
They were transported to the sea and then sent in batches to various small islands where the Han people were unwilling to go.
Under the repeated combing by the Han army's cavalry, all kinds of tribes on the prairie, no matter in the south or north, who could not even explain their origins, had all turned into island tribes. After that, only the tribes left on the entire prairie
Han people grazing herds.
They are purely Han herdsmen, living and grazing near designated cities, and have household registration, status, and pastures.
Wei Qing, Huo Qubing and others continued to send troops to the west for years.
First, he defeated Wusun, who wanted to submit to the Han Dynasty, and then swept through the countries in the Western Regions, deposing their kings and seizing their territories.
The Wusun people really wanted to surrender to the big man, because they were frightened by the big man's terrifying fighting power.
The Huns, who were so tyrannical and terrifying, were destroyed by the powerful men just like chopping melons and vegetables. As the former younger brothers of the Huns, how could the Wusun people not be afraid?
But the big man didn't want any vassals at all, because Li Yunze knew the nature of these nomadic tribes very well.
When the Middle-earth is strong, it is no problem to be a son or a grandson.
But once Middle-earth is weakened, they will do all kinds of evil!
If this is the case, then solve the problem at its source.
Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, with tens of thousands of elite cavalry, spent two years defeating Wusun.
It's not that the Wusun people fought so hard that they could resist for two years, but they were really good at running away.
He didn't fight with the Han family at all, he just ran away like crazy.
In the end, Huo Qubing chased him all the way to the north of the distant Jinshan Mountain, which was already a place of the Rus' Kingdom in later generations. Only then did he catch up with the Wusun people's Wangting old camp, and captured the Wangting in a battle.
Wusun was pacified.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! If the Xiongnu were running around so crazily back then, it would have taken several years for the Han to destroy the Xiongnu.
The territory of the Wusun people was set up as the Jinshan Protectorate, counties and counties were set up to build cities and roads, and the population was relocated to become designated herdsmen.
It's just that this small migrating population is nothing compared to the growing population of the Han Dynasty.
Therefore, the Han army had almost no rest and sent out troops again to sweep across the countries in the Western Regions.
Every time a place was pacified, prefectures and counties were set up to relocate the local people. Most of the young people were drafted to build the Hanzhi Road, which ran through the entire Western Region, and then allocated land to the people who migrated from the Han family.
For example, Lop Nur is surrounded by seven or eight counties, home to tens of millions of people.
The fertile lands on the north and south sides of the Tianshan Mountains are dotted with people from all over China.
However this is still not enough.
A large number of Han troops marched westward along the Han Straight Road, crossed the Pamir Plateau, and first defeated the Dawan Kingdom left over from Alexander's eastern expedition, and then attacked the Da Yuezhi who occupied the two rivers.
When they attacked Dawan, they set up a standard Macedonian phalanx to fight.
Wei Qing, who led his troops to attack, used powerful crossbows to activate the formation and used heavy armored infantry to break the formation.
This so-called Macedonian phalanx was destroyed in one battle.
There are always people in later generations who advocate that Alexander did not have any common sense in military affairs when he defeated the Qin State during his expedition.
There were powerful crossbows in the Han Dynasty. How could the Macedonians, who only wore short armor, be able to defend themselves?
As for the spears they used, there was no chance of winning against the Han family's halberds.
As for the cavalry, let alone that. The Greek cavalry has always been famous for being weak.
As for the Da Yueshi, they could not defeat the Xiongnu back then, and now they are naturally unable to defeat the Han army that destroyed the Xiongnu.
After several years of tug-of-war, it was natural that its strength was exhausted, and it collapsed and decomposed, spreading over a huge territory.
The Han army did not spend much energy to wipe out these small tribes, but went all out south.
Li Yunze's purpose is obvious, which is to come to the Indian region, which has massive mature fields and is very suitable for farming civilization.
During this period, the Indian region had been conquered by the Aryans who invaded from the northwest, and a hierarchical system was established.
Then came the successive invasions of the Persians and Alexander, and the whole of India was in chaos until the emergence of the Mauryan Dynasty.
Decades ago, with the decline of the Mauryan Dynasty, the Dayue clan of Dayuan and others continued to move south, and a period of chaos began again.
Without the emergence of the Han army, the Yueshi would have occupied most of India, thus establishing the Kushan Dynasty, one of the four classical empires.
But with the appearance of the Han army, everything changed.
The Han army had never encountered such a weak opponent, and they were even a little uncomfortable at first.
When they adjust, it will be a direct sweep.
Large numbers of Han people poured into various parts of South Asia from the Western Regions and Dian Kingdom along the Hanzhi Road. The fertile land and abundant rainfall here successfully accommodated the migration of massive populations.
At the same time, Dahan's maritime shipping business continued to develop and grow with Li Yunze's continued support.
Strongholds and cities were established all over Southeast Asia, the migratory population eliminated the savages, and the burning of forests and land reclamation had become large-scale and institutionalized.
He even went all the way south and found the mainland of Zealand.
Of course, the Zealand continent at this time was extremely desolate, and besides the savages there were all kinds of strange and weird creatures.
Apart from building a stronghold in the coastal area suitable for living here and planting the flag of the Han Dynasty, the Han family did not go deep into it.
At this time, the large-scale expansion of the Han family finally came to a halt, and they were busy digesting these sites and expanding the road system for many years.
When Li Yunze took office for 60 years, famous generals such as Wei Qing and Huo Qubing fell one after another.
Li Yunze himself looked at the huge map that was hung up and sighed softly.
"I've done enough for the big man!"
It is recorded in the history of the Han Dynasty that "in the 60th year after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne, he abdicated to the crown prince Liu Xiu. He then traveled around the world and disappeared without a trace."