Emperor Ming Dynasty

Chapter 643 Sweet Potatoes and Immigrants

"The veteran has heard about it a little bit, but Your Majesty, why add a new department, just let a certain official department work part-time."

Wang Yingxiong said helplessly, the establishment of a new division would require additional officials, why bother?Who in the household despises power?
"Concurrently serving is too light a responsibility, which involves millions of people."

Zhu Yixi directly rejected his proposal.

The scope of responsibility of the Ministry of Households is very large. It manages the country's finances, civil affairs, population and household registration, land resources, underground mineral deposits, customs, taxation, auditing, etc. most.

Each cleansing department is also in charge of a province or a few provinces of money and food, so don't look at the 24 provincial-level regions today, but they are still managed in an orderly manner. In addition, each cleansing department is also in charge of a national special affairs .

For example, in addition to being in charge of Zhejiang's civil affairs, money and grain, the Zhejiang Department is also responsible for counting the country's population and grain; the Yunnan Department is also in charge of grain transportation; the Guizhou Department is also in charge of bank notes; He Neicang cashier; Fujian Department is also in charge of earthquake relief; the salaries of officials, nobles, and clans are assigned to Shaanxi Qingli Department.

This saves official positions and allows one person to do several jobs, but the disadvantages are also obvious, power and responsibility are not separated, and government affairs are cumbersome.

Glancing at Wang Yingxiong, Zhu Yixi thought to himself, there have been too many changes in the central government recently, and when you leave office, I will tear it down.

"Immigration Secretary Cheng can't wait immediately."

The emperor's tone was unquestionable, Wang Yingxiong had no choice but to agree, and the expenditure had to increase again.

He also knew that the immigration issue had reached the point of no delay.

In the household department's autumn tax estimate, additions to the household registration are also being carried out one after another.

The population estimates of Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces have been released, and the situation is very serious. There are less than 4 million people left in the nine prefectures of Shaanxi, and they are concentrated in the Guanzhong Plain and the four prefectures of Hanzhong, Yulin, Yan'an, Qingyang, and Luochuan. , adding up to less than one million, but in the Wanli Tianqi year, it was about ten million.

Henan was the worst. It was destroyed during the reign of Chongzhen. So far, there are only 2 million people, and tens of millions of people died and fled. Most of these 2 million people are in the four prefectures of Zhangde, Hebei. How miserable it is.

Wars, plagues, and droughts that lasted nearly 20 years have severely damaged the vitality of the north. In addition, the three new provinces of Gansu, Ningxia, and Suiyuan were newly established, which is precisely because of the lack of land reclamation.

If normal production is to be resumed, the household registration gap will be close to [-] million.

However, Dingkou in the three provinces in the south of the Yangtze River is prosperous, and it is only estimated that it exceeds 30 million. Internal discussions of the Ministry of Household Affairs found that 40 million is no problem, especially in Jiangxi, where 20 million is not a problem.

There are also many hidden households, which are even more difficult to count.

"Just one place in the south of the Yangtze River is enough to relocate 5 million landless people with few lands."

Wang Yingxiong was filled with emotions. Only when he came to the Ministry of Housing did he know why the south is so important.

"Hunan fills Hubei, and Jiangxi fills Henan, Zhejiang, Anhui, and Jiangsu. Collect 5 million and place them in Gansu, Suiyuan, and Shaanxi provinces as appropriate. Take your time. This is a ten-year effort."

"Your Majesty, with so many people, they need a lot of money and food. In less than ten years, the Ministry of Households has no money and food to arrange for them."

Wang Yingxiong smiled wryly.

"Start with a short distance first. Hunan fills Hubei, and Sichuan fills Henan. We can start first."

Zhu Yixi cheered up and said: "Every household who migrates will have [-] acres of land, three years of tax exemption, half tax for two years, and five years of corvee exemption."

In the feudal dynasties, the biggest force for land reclamation was the three-year tax exemption, which sounds good, but in fact it is very tricky to implement.

For example, the imperial court issued an announcement in the first month, and it may have just entered autumn when it arrived at the place. At this time, the wasteland has long been reclaimed, and the taxation remains the same, or for a while, the new land can only be pawned to make wedding dresses for others.

However, tax exemption is inevitable for corvee, which makes people run around non-stop, and family ruin and death are just waiting for leisure.

How else to put it, there are two mouthfuls of official characters, full of cannibalism.

But now, the imperial court will publicize policies like this to benefit the people through bulletins, and strictly regulate the start and deadlines to prevent anyone from taking the opportunity to cause trouble.

"Hubu, I really have no money!"

Wang Yingxiong's ass decides his head, and he opened his mouth to say that he has no money, which is very different from his daring to do things when he was in the official department.

Even ordinary people can't help but feel distressed seeing the huge numbers on the books dissipate little by little, let alone them as civil servants.

"No money? Didn't the salt tax increase by one million this year? If one household pays ten yuan, that's [-] households."

"Besides, according to Jinyiwei's news, the food price in Huguang and Sichuan has dropped to five cents per stone, which is only half of Beijing's. How much money can a commoner spend?"

Wang Yingxiong was dumb, and opened his mouth, but he didn't know what to say.

The emperor was too well prepared.

"Go, I have something good to show you."

After saying that, the emperor became interested, greeted Wang Yingxiong, and they came to a certain vegetable field together.

On this piece of land, some incomprehensible crops were planted.

"This is a sweet potato, also known as a sweet potato."

Zhu Yixi ignored the dirt and walked quickly, pulling at the seedlings, and several fist-sized red-skinned fruits appeared in front of Wang Yingxiong's eyes.

In the 17th century, sweet potatoes were not improved, not only the yield was small, but also the size was small.

"This? Can you eat it?"

"Eat both raw and cooked!"

Zhu Yixi excitedly said: "I asked Xiyi to present this object, and then the Chen family in Dongguan, Guangdong, and the Chen family in Changle, Fujian also presented this object."

"It is said that this product does not choose the land, it is widely planted and resistant to barrenness, even in hillsides and ravines, it can produce more than [-] catties per mu, and more than [-] catties, which is several times that of rice."

Wang Yingxiong was speechless, looking at the sweet potato tuber in his hand, he was speechless for a while.

At this time, the emperor began to introduce the other side: "This is corn, which is also produced overseas, and its yield is also high, yielding hundreds of catties per mu. Compared with rice and wheat, it is easier to serve, but it has more water."

"With these two kinds of grains, why would it take three to five years, maybe a year or so, to allow the immigrants to have enough food and clothing."

"His Majesty--"

Wang Yingxiong was amazed again and again, and his eyes were moist: "With this kind of grain, why worry about not having a prosperous world?"

"Since the apocalypse, the people have suffered day by day, the people have been in trouble, and the country has been humiliated. I just hope that the world will recover as soon as possible."

Zhu Yixi speaks earnestly, with a face full of saints.

"By the way, if you want to promote this kind of grain to the whole country, you need the help of your household department."

"The humble minister will not hesitate to say anything."

"The normal warehouses in various provinces not only need to store rice and wheat, but also buy sweet potatoes as much as possible."

"But this sweet potato is so big, it won't last forever!"

"You don't understand!" Zhu Yixi smiled lightly, "Wheat can be turned into flour, why can't sweet potatoes be ground into flour?"

Once the Changping warehouses in various provinces start to purchase sweet potatoes, it will definitely promote the spread of sweet potatoes.

Relying on the advantage of large quantity and full control, sweet potatoes will quickly spread throughout the country, and with it, the difficulty of immigration can be reduced by half.

(End of this chapter)