Emperor Ming Dynasty

In summer, the whole north seems to be baked on a charcoal stove, and it seems to be incorporated into a pottery cave, which makes people miserable.

Liuli Village is located in Fangshan County, two hundred miles southwest of the capital. Due to its proximity to the Liuli River and abundant water sources, most of the village’s land is irrigated. Omura.

The summer heat waves scorched the earth mercilessly, and the air was filled with smoke and dust. Peasants in short and brown clothes couldn't even breathe.

The crops in the farmland are green and yellow, and the ears of wheat are gradually bending, which is obviously a bumper harvest year.

The people who had been tilling yellow leaves from the scorching sun were sweating and exhausted, but each of them smiled brightly in this scorching heat.

Eyes full of longing and hope.

The longing for the grain of the summer harvest, and the hope of not going hungry.

Just like that, the elderly up to 60 years old, children down to seven or eight years old, and even pregnant women with big bellies all joined in this summer harvest.

Daming’s summer tax is collected from late May to the end of August. It looks ample, but God waits for no one. The villagers dare not bet on whether there will be a torrential rain, which will turn the harvest into a famine.

Taking advantage of the heat at noon, the village head and the elders of the clan sat under the shade of a tree to rest, and took care of the children who were just toddler.

The 50-year-old village chief had a pimple on his mouth. Seeing the elders beside him take out a cigarette pouch and stuff it with shredded tobacco, he took out the cloth bag from his arms, took out the flint and fire sickle, and scratched it at the mouth of the cigarette.

After a while, the dry eye is on.

"Uncle, are you comfortable?"

"Relaxed." The frown on the clan elder's face eased, and white smoke spewed out of his nostrils.

"You said, when will we plant this tobacco leaf?"

The village head asked eagerly: "I heard that everyone in the capital likes this cigarette pouch, and even officials like to have a couple of sips..."

"There are quite a few people smoking in ten miles and eight villages. If we grow it well, we won't be able to make a lot of money."

"What's the rush?" The clan elder coughed and said slowly, "You think this is easy to do?"

"My nephew said that the Hokkien people control the tobacco very well, hiding the best seeds. Even if the tobacco leaves in the capital are very inferior, they are better than ours."

"That is, the smoke in the capital is the same? No matter how bad it is, it is better than us."

"You are always blessed by heaven, from our Fang family."

The village head almost lost his eyes with envy.

This uncle of the clan went to the county town a few years ago, and rescued a big guy from a business firm with some local methods on the way.

Over the years, melon and fruit snacks have been delivered during festivals.

When I came here last year, I knew that he smoked dry tobacco, so I said that I would send some high-quality seeds to pay my respects.

This is a big event for Liuli Village.

Once Liuli Village has tobacco leaves that are better than Shili Baxiang, and can still be sold in commercial firms, will development be far behind?

As for grabbing?
Just kidding, there are 2000 people in a village, even the county magistrate is not allowed to enter.

"Danyan is really a good thing. When you are tired, just take a sip." The clan elder said with emotion:
"I heard that it was Lord Wanli and Lord Tianqi who would pass it on to us. This is a good thing—"

"Hmph, the village next door also has a lot of them, hidden like treasures, and no one will see them." The village chief said angrily.

"Don't talk nonsense, it's the farmland of a high official. Take a look at the waterwheel and stone mill, but how many people can there be in Fangshan County?"

The clan elder has a lot of knowledge and said quickly.

After a while, the tired villagers also took a break, unable to survive the scorching sun, and huddled under the shade of the trees to eat the lunch brought by their wives and children.

Only during the busy season, three meals a day are dry.

"Uncle, you really are a senior official!" The village chief pointed to the dam in the distance, his face moved.

The clan elder squinted his eyes, looked carefully, and then looked carefully:

On the embankment of the Liuli River, a group of hundreds of people came, surrounded by a man in fine clothes, as if enjoying the scenery.

"It's such a hot day, I don't know what these officials are looking at." The clan elder shook his head and said to the village chief:
"He's a nobleman, please tell everyone not to disturb me, and then send some local products from our village."

"Can someone ask for it?" The village chief asked in surprise, "Just the clothes alone can probably buy dozens of acres of land."

"He is an official, and he cares about face. Although the things we give are worthless, they have to give something back when they receive them."

There was cunning in the elder's eyes: "They think it's worthless, but it's a good thing for us."

On the embankment, Zhu Yixi looked into the distance, a huge windmill was slowly turning, accompanied by the rushing water beside it.

The huge windmill leaves are extraordinarily exaggerated at close range, but bags of wheat enter from the entrance and turn into grains of wheat at the exit.

"How much can you get for a stone of wheat?"

"Your Majesty, if it's an ordinary stone mill, then it's [-]%; for a windmill, it's [-]% and it's even more refined..."

The steward at the side spoke cautiously, trembling slightly.

Obviously, compared with the common stone mills in the countryside, the windmill has more power and is more refined, which results in a more than [-]% shelling rate.

Zhu Yixi was born at the bottom of the class, so of course he understands how good agriculture is.

Now the north is generally peaceful. Although the Little Ice Age has been repeated, those large-scale droughts and floods have basically ended, and the yield per mu of land has steadily increased.

According to a rough estimate, one mu of dry land grain in the north is about one stone, which is about 150 catties, and that for irrigated land is one and a half to two stones.

In other words, a farmer can only produce two shi per mu for summer wheat and autumn millet.

But stone mills can only get one stone of grain after husking, while windmills can get two buckets more. Of course, bran is also edible, but the price is very low.

The market price is fifty yuan for a bucket of grain, and two buckets is worth one hundred yuan. Even if the grain merchant charges a low price, it can be worth at least fifty yuan.

According to the regulations of the imperial court, the taxation in the world is divided into three classes, the poor, the middle and the upper class.

This is the selling price of a bucket of grain.

The typical light corvee and low tax, but compared with the thirty one tax in the early Ming Dynasty, the twenty one tax in the Qing Dynasty is already considered high.

But if you count the local showdown, it is at least five taxes and one, or even three taxes and one.

But now the tax is collected by the Ministry of Finance, one of the eight ministries, and then divided into four or six, which avoids the random collection of local miscellaneous factions and saves a lot of money and food for the people.

At the same time, the Ding tax has also been included in the grain tax, which is clearly regarded as a tax reduction.

The windmill mill is tantamount to saving taxes and saving a bucket of money.

If windmills spread across the country, the effect will be even more exaggerated.

There are currently 1000 to 12 million hectares of arable land in the country (including military fields in the Ming Dynasty), which is 2.4 billion mu, and two buckets per mu is 1 million stones, worth more than [-] million silver dollars.

Of course, the number of arable land is increasing every day, but the arable land is at least 12 billion mu. It seems that most of them are recorded in Ming Shilu. During the Wanli period, there were 11 billion mu of government and private land.

For today's growth, the three northeastern provinces and the Anxi region are the main growth points.

"That's right—" the emperor nodded slightly, expressing his appreciation.

This manor belonged to King Qin in name, and belonged to the private money given by the emperor, but after the establishment of Qin State, it actually returned to the management of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

In other words, apart from King Qin's mansion, the rest of the land, merchants, etc. will basically be taken back. After all, King Qin is not short of money now.

Nowadays, private visits in micro-services are nothing more than the fact that the emperor often lives in the inner court and feels a little divorced from the masses, so he goes to the countryside again.

"Your Majesty, the villagers didn't know the importance, so they sent some melons and fruits, two top-quality grouse."

"Take it!" The emperor waved his hand, and a smile appeared on his face under the parasol: "Let's not be stingy, so let's send some sugar water over there to replenish their strength!"

"Yes!" Liu Ah Fu replied, waving his hands and tempting people to do it.

The emperor continued to inspect the farm, from the house to the farm tools, he was very interested.

On the other side, the people of Liuli Village had just rested. Although the sun was still hot, they still got up and prepared to work.

At this time, a group of big men with the appearance of Zhuang Ding, each carrying water, swayed over, ten barrels.

"My master received your things, and the gift is light and affectionate, so I brought some sugar water over for you to taste."

The village head repeatedly confirmed in the past that it was true after he had tasted it himself. He immediately thanked Dade and kept talking about it.

Soon, the villagers lined up and scooped up the bowls one by one.

No matter men, women, old or young, taste carefully, for fear of spilling a little bit, taste the sweetness on the tip of the tongue.

The eyes of the old man are squinted, the mouth of the child is grinning, the man is amazed, and the woman is full of aftertaste.

Sweet, the taste that human beings have been pursuing.

Haunting on the tip of the tongue, the villagers have been reluctant to leave for a long time, such as endless aftertaste.

Many people even kept it, reluctant to continue drinking it.

The village head said with emotion: "Uncle, you are right."

In today's market, the price of a catty of sugar is much more expensive than salt. Even maltose, that is, caramel, costs thirty to fifty yuan.

The sucrose on the market is only one hundred and eighty coins.

For example, the white sugar exported overseas by the Taiwan government has reached six silver dollars per stone, and it has been spread to one silver dollar per catty.

In other words, the inland areas of Ming Dynasty raised prices layer by layer, and the prices on the market can only be compared to export prices, and domestic sales are not as good as export sales.

Even at such a low price, it is a luxury for ordinary people.

In these ten barrels of sugar water, there are not a few silver coins that cannot be bought, which is extremely precious.

Everyone started the hard harvesting work again, and the sugar water in their stomachs just drank seemed to give them great strength.

In the evening, even if they were reluctant, they could only go back.

At this time, the villagers realized that the ancestral hall was lit up, and some Zhuang Ding guarded it with knives.

For Liuli Village, Zhu Yixi is the most honored guest when he comes here like this.

Even though most of the villagers live in thatched huts, the ancestral hall is made of bricks and tiles, with left and right side rooms, simple but practical.

The layers of rankings are listed in order without any overstepping.

After looking around for a week, Zhu Yixi sat down. Looking at the two trembling old men in front of him, he couldn't bear it: "Sit down, old man."

"Hey—" The two unconsciously showed respect.

"Hundreds of families in Guicun are united as one, which is rare in Fangshan County."

"This is our family rule. Anyone who messes up is soaked in a pig cage."

The clan elder suddenly became proud at this moment.

As long as the two of Zhu Yixi's questions and answers did not involve interests, they would naturally know everything and talk endlessly.

At this time, the emperor had a preliminary impression of Shuntian Prefecture, or the rural economy in Hebei.

In many people's minds, the north is poor and the south is rich.

The reason why the south is stronger than the north is because there are two crops a year and the land is fertile.

But actually?The tax in the south is several times that in the north, which to some extent has evened the gap.

Therefore, the root of the gap between the rich and the poor lies in the difference in the diversification of economic crops in the rural areas of the two places.

For example, in addition to the staple food in the north and the south, the economic crops of the people in the north can only be melons and fruits, and there are only a few types of wood.

And what about the South?In addition to growing rice, you can also raise silkworms and reel silk, and grow cotton, sugar cane, tea, sesame, etc.

It can be said that in some corners and barren mountainous areas, flowers can be grown, the income is diverse, and the ability to resist risks is strong.

Once the grain harvest in the northern rural areas is exhausted, they can only rebel or wait for death, such as northern Shaanxi.

In the south, you can sell cotton to buy grain, or you can make raw silk yourself. If a county or a prefecture suffers disaster, it will definitely not affect a province, and you can calmly relieve the disaster.

This is the function of the developed commodity economy.

Now that new crops have been popularized for more than ten years, many people are also planting sweet potatoes in poor lands and slopes to prepare for emergencies.

But contrary to the emperor's expectations, the common people only used sweet potatoes as life-saving food in famines, or to feed livestock, and had no other ideas.

Or, there is a new method in a certain corner, but it has not been popularized.

Hearing this, Zhu Yixi hated iron for not being a steel road:

"Sweet potatoes can be used to make wine, which is cheap to quench thirst; sweet potatoes can be made into sweet potato powder, which is also very good for cooking, and can also be made into soy sauce and even sugar."

"These methods are all ways to get rich."

These words made the village chief and the clan elders stunned for a while. They couldn't think of sweet potatoes having such an effect after digging out their heads. It was an eye-opener.

With the yield of sweet potatoes, using them to make wine is definitely a big profit.

The emperor asked about the situation of the cattle, the number of livestock, and the price of farm tools.

This made him feel relieved.

Over the years, with the introduction of grasslands, the price of farm cattle has gradually stabilized. A calf costs only 20 yuan, while a strong cattle only costs [-] yuan.

Compared with the early years of Shaowu, the price is only half.

In order to encourage the breeding of cattle, the imperial court did not even levy taxes on the sale and purchase of cattle.

Cattle have been lowered, and livestock such as donkeys and horses have also been reduced, which is a great supplement to manpower.

As for farm tools, when the production of pig iron continues to rise and the price of pig iron falls, its price is also falling, which helps agricultural production to a certain extent.

Although most people are reluctant to use ironware, there are still some people who can afford it.

It is worth noting that the continuous development of ZTE machines has brought down the price of cloth, and even many farmers would rather buy cloth than weave it.

Finally, looking at the tobacco pipe of the clan elder, Zhu Yixi guessed that tobacco leaves might have started to be planted in the countryside.

When we left Liuli Village, the moon was already hollow.

Stepping in the weeds, the emperor was full of thoughts: "Sweet potatoes and tobacco leaves are not enough. Soybeans and sugar beets must be added to increase risk resistance."

Sugar beets are like sugar cane in the south, they can adapt to the climate in the north, so that sugar can be extracted, which is an important economic crop.

Clenching his fists, he felt as if he never stopped, and couldn't help laughing: "Sure enough, the more women and power you have, the more you think and think a lot."

Of course, if the countryside is stabilized and the self-cultivator's ability to resist risks is enhanced, it means that the country is stable and the power of himself and his descendants can exist for a long time.

Think about it carefully, in the face of power, the emperor should stand with ordinary people, but in reality it is often the opposite.