Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 273

At this time, the Yellow River was seizing the Huai River into the sea, and its estuary was in the East China Sea. This was when the Huangling Hill was built during the Hongzhi period, and one Huai River received all the water from the Yellow River. This was also the fifth major diversion of the Yellow River, entering the sea near the Binhai in later generations.

"With this division, the lesser half of Huai'an Mansion will be included in Haizhou Mansion."

"I think that if Xu and Hai are also included in Jiangsu, the distance from the southernmost Songjiang to the northernmost Xuzhou is more than 1000 miles. It is too narrow and long to collapse the Yangtze River and the Yellow River. It would be relatively better if Haizhou and Haizhou were assigned to Anhui, so that Anhui could still have the mouth of the Yellow River and a coast.”

Zhu Yihai smiled. If Xuzhou was assigned to Anhui, it would be [-] miles from Wuyuan in the southwest of Anhui to Xuzhou in the north.

However, he agrees with the matter of giving Anhui the estuary to the sea. The Yangtze River estuary is given to Jiangsu, and it is not bad to give the Yellow River estuary to Anhui.

"Alright, then Xu Hai will be assigned to Anhui, and Huaiyang will be assigned to Jiangsu."

"Shen Youlong served as the governor and governor of Jiangsu, the governor of Wu Yi Water Transport, the governor and governor of Anhui in Huang Daozhou, the former governor of Susong Wang Yongzuo was changed to the governor of Southern Jiangxi, and the governor of Huaiyang was changed to the Ministry of Household Affairs."

"Shoufu, you and the cabinet will sort out the provinces' sub-patrols and road preparations as soon as possible, and all road members will select and appoint officials to take office, and each department will also arrange suitable officials to take office."

Walking around the main island of Zhoushan, Zhu Yihai was very satisfied when he saw the artillery factories, gunpowder factories, silk weaving factories, shipyards, armor factories, ironworks, etc. that were under construction one by one.

I even made a trip to the field for a walk. At this time, the Mid-Autumn Festival has passed, and the late rice in the field has already been dyed golden. It will not be long before the autumn harvest.

"After the late rice is harvested, some radishes or rapeseed can be planted again."

On the corners of some hillsides, many sweet potatoes and potatoes were also planted. These crops from the Americas have saved many lives because of their drought tolerance and high yield. They are also very good for raising pigs and feeding cows and horses.

They do not occupy arable land and require less water. These crops are very good and are now being vigorously promoted.

At the port, the fishing boat returns to the port, fully loaded with fishing goods.

There is a strong fishy smell in the port, fish and shrimp can be seen everywhere, dried fish, pickled salted fish, and large nets for drying.

Full of life.

"Now that a large number of people are pouring into the Zhoushan Islands, is there enough food and what is the price of food?"

"White rice now costs three taels of silver a stone, but brown rice is much cheaper, and wheat sorghum is even cheaper. At present, Zhoushan has sufficient food supply, and the price of grain is still gradually falling. When the autumn grain is harvested, it is expected to fall back to two taels." One stone, or even less."

Three taels, six one stones of grain is a sky-high price, and Zhu Yihai also knows that it is helpless.After all, it is now a wartime, and this year there is a drought again. With the combination of natural disasters and military disasters, food prices will inevitably rise sharply.

However, there are still some human factors in it, such as grain merchants deliberately hoarding and raising prices.

"Before we started to sort out the outstanding payment, didn't we fine out a lot of food from those landlords? Why is the price of food still so high?" Zhu Yihai frowned.

The tax rectification that began in Yanzhou has spread to the eight prefectures in eastern Zhejiang, and even in Hangzhou and other places in western Zhejiang, a wave of taxation has been paid, and a lot of food has been obtained.

"It is true that a lot of food has been cleared out, but we are currently storing all of this food in military warehouses in various places for military use, so as to ensure that the army food can supply the needs of combat, and we dare not move it lightly."

Zhu Yihai frowned again.

"Are there many grains?"

"There are Lumi that can guarantee military supplies and officials, and there are some reserves."

"Gu also knows that everyone wants to give priority to ensuring military supplies, but under the current situation, we can't just sit back and watch the people starve. How many people can afford rice that costs three taels of silver and one stone?

Even with wild vegetables and miscellaneous grains, it can't last without rice.

These grains are taken from the people and must be used for the people. The landlords and gentry were already very dissatisfied with the payment before. If we can’t supply these grains to the people now, then there will be resentment on both sides, and civil strife will arise. , then it will be troublesome. "Zhu Yihai said decisively, "immediately dispatch a batch of grain from the military warehouses in various places and supply it to the common people. "

"Your Highness, in the current situation, the food in the military warehouse cannot meet the needs of the people."

"Do it first, and of course pay attention to the method. I would like to make a few suggestions. First, the food from the military warehouse should be supplied to the people nearby, but it cannot be directly marketed or distributed, but a limited supply. We only sell grain for three to five days, and even this grain can be charged to the account without charge, and the grain can be paid back after the autumn harvest, and it is good to pay back two liters per bucket at that time, or wait until the next year when the situation improves.”

Selling grain directly may be bought by grain merchants and then hoarded and not sold, so this precious grain must be distributed carefully.

"Under the condition of ensuring military supplies, the grain in the warehouse should be used as much as possible to help the people overcome the current difficulties."

Although the autumn harvest will be ready soon, no one can survive for three to five days without food in their stomachs. Besides, with the current situation, not everyone can harvest food from farming.

There are a large number of off-duty people in the south of the Yangtze River, engaged in manufacturing and other industries, and they all rely on buying grain for food.

"For those grain merchants, we should not blindly suppress them, but allow them to raise prices."

Song Zhipu was a little puzzled, profiteers took the opportunity to drive up the price of grain, why the price increase was allowed?

"Because if we force them to sell grain at a low price, no merchants will come to transport grain, because it will be unprofitable and even lose money."

"So what we have to do is not to forcibly suppress food prices, but to start from other aspects, such as prohibiting food from all over the country to go out of the areas under our control. Eastern Zhejiang is the front line, so we should encourage Fujian and Guangdong and Guangxi to transport grain from the rear, and encourage businessmen. If they transport grain from the north to the south, as long as they are willing to transport it, they won’t be afraid to sell it at a high price.”

"But there is one thing. When the grain arrives, it can be sold at a high price, but it must be sold, not hoarded and not sold."

"In areas where there is a shortage of food, the outflow of food is strictly prohibited, and landlords are prohibited from hoarding food and not selling it."

Those grains must be circulated instead of being piled up in warehouses.

No matter how expensive you sell it, it is only caused by the relationship between supply and demand in the market. It cannot be infinitely expensive. The more expensive it is, the greater the profit, the more grain merchants will come in to transport grain, and the price of grain will fall.

On the other hand, no matter how expensive food is, it is food after all. At critical times, gold and silver are dead things, but food can survive.

During the siege, a liter of grain sometimes sold for more than a dozen taels of gold, isn't that why.

If the government forcibly prohibits the price increase of grain, it will be a disservice, because this is the mistake the government made after the local disasters in the past. They forcibly suppressed the rise of grain prices in the disaster area. As a result, no grain merchants came in to transport grain. The required amount of food could not be achieved, so the food shortage was abruptly aggravated in the end.

Many smart officials discovered this rule early on.

Just like someone has actually done research, many times the rise in food prices is not really a shortage of food, or not to that extent, but some people are hoarding or restricting sales.

Therefore, to deal with high grain prices, there are no more than two means, one is to increase the supply of grain imports, and the other is to supply local grain stocks.

The current situation in eastern Zhejiang is not bad, at least it has not suffered too much war. Compared with places like Guanshan and Henan, it is much better. When there is a famine in those places, it is true that you can’t find a blade of grass, you can only eat soil , while in eastern Zhejiang, it is only a matter of price.

The court of Lu Jianguo now has a lot of money and food in their hands. The supply of military supplies is a priority, but it must also take care of the people. Otherwise, if there is a peasant uprising in the rear due to famine, it will be too embarrassing and threaten the foundation.

(End of this chapter)