Brother Zhu Youxiao

"This Yan Siqi has a lot of careful thoughts, but considering that Yang Wenyue and the others have already arrived, and with Lu Jianxing and Jin Xuan supervising him, he can't afford to make trouble..."

On March 25, when Zhu Youjian got the two letters that Yingzhou sent urgently from Busan, North Korea to the capital, he immediately snorted.

The two letters were written by Jin Xuan and Yan Siqi respectively. Although the content is similar, it can be seen from the handwriting and language that Yan Siqi is cheating, playing tricks, and showing signs of cleverness.

Zhu Youjian saw through his cleverness at a glance.

A straight person like Jin Xuan is suitable for supervision, and he is not Yan Siqi's opponent if he is playful.

Fortunately, Zhu Youjian only needed him to supervise and manage Yingzhou. As for playing with his mind, Lu Jianxing, Yang Wenyue, and Wu Aheng played with Yan Siqi.

Putting the letter aside, Zhu Youjian stood up from his study seat, and the two sitting in front of him were Cao Huachun and Wang Chengen, who dealt with the government affairs of Yumajian, and Lu Wenzhao of Jinyiwei, and the one who was doing homework Two radish heads.

"Dingguo, Ran'er, go out for a walk first, relax, combine work and rest, and come back to do your homework in half an hour."

Zhu Youjian spoke to Li Dingguo and Zhu Ciran who were doing their homework. When Zhu Ciran heard this, his original bitter face burst into a smile, while Li Dingguo knew that his highness wanted to talk about business, so he got up and walked out.

Seeing Li Dingguo leaving, Zhu Ciran followed behind him, bouncing and following him out.

"Ugh……"

Looking at Zhu Ciran's back, Zhu Youjian always felt that his eldest nephew didn't seem very serious.

He thought of his elder brother's love for carpenters, his father's love for taking drugs, his royal grandfather's love for the house, his royal great-grandfather's love for cultivating immortals, and...

In short, when thinking about what his family's ancestors did, Zhu Youjian always felt that President Zhu Ciran was crooked.

Although during the past few months of studying under him, except for being a little naughty, he was quite honest and responsible at other times, but Zhu Youjian still felt uneasy.

Seemingly seeing his uneasiness, Cao Huachun comforted him with a smile:
"Your Highness, it's normal for His Highness the Crown Prince to be playful when he was young. Didn't Dingguo also love to play when he was the same age as His Highness the Crown Prince?"

"They're different..." Zhu Youjian shook his head.

"Although Dingguo is only two years older than Ran'er, he has experienced the suffering of the people after all. When I observe Ran'er, when Ran'er sees the suffering of the people, it is often not the experience, but the sympathetic gesture of the superior."

"This kind of attitude is not a good thing, and it often does bad things with good intentions..."

"Even so, at least he is good-natured, and at least he is a ruler of success." Cao Huachun was so courageous that he even said "a ruler of success".

However, the four people sitting here didn't shy away from this, and even if Zhu Youxiao knew it, he would at most just laugh it off.

Listening to Cao Huachun's comforting words, Zhu Youjian no longer thought about it, but asked the three of them:

"What happened to the state-run gold, silver and copper mine?"

"It looks good so far. The miners in Shanxi are very honest. Some who are unwilling to sell mines are willing to accept the imperial court's exploration and pay taxes normally." Cao Huachun said with a smile, but Lu Wenzhao interrupted: ...

"It's not bad in the north, but there are changes in Nanzhili and Fujian and Zhejiang provinces."

"Huh?" Zhu Youjian frowned slightly, and Lu Wenzhao also said:
"Recently, some people in these three places are spreading rumors, saying that the imperial court's acquisition of gold, silver and copper mines is essentially a forced purchase and sale, and the tax is too high."

"Hmph!" Hearing Lu Wenzhao's words, Zhu Youjian snorted coldly:
"Buy and sell by force? They were arrogant and domineering when they lied to the imperial court about their mine production and evaded tax and silver. Now that the imperial court recycles them according to the output they reported, they are pretending to be kind."

"Besides, the fixed tax is too high, and they don't even look at the mining tax of the past dynasties. They know whether the mining tax of the imperial court is high or not!"

Zhu Youjian has long been disappointed with the powerful gentry, and Lu Wenzhao knows it very well.

"That being said...but if the news spreads too much, it will also affect the court's reputation in the hearts of the people. Do you want to stop it?"

Lu Wenzhao opened his mouth to suggest, and Zhu Youjian also bowed his head and continued to process the memorial, and while processing it, he opened his mouth to order:
"Find out these people who spread rumors, and then find out other crimes. It just so happens that Xiaoxiyang's supervisory department needs a large number of immigrants. I am worried that there will not be enough people."

"Find some serious crimes, confiscate the house and exile, confiscate the fields and distribute them to the common people for cultivation."

"Yes!" Lu Wenzhao nodded in response, obviously knowing what to do, after all, it wasn't the first time he had done this.

"Is there any change in the number of victims of drought in the north and south?"

Zhu Youjian mentioned what he was most concerned about, and Cao Huachun's words reassured him a little.

"Although the drought is still going on in the north, the degree of drought has dropped. In addition, I have relocated many people in the past two years, so many places can barely be self-sufficient."

"Although the three prefectures of Xining in Hexi are suffering from drought, Juyan, Xihai, Liangzhou, Ganzhou, Suzhou and other prefectures can still farm normally by relying on the rivers melted by the snow in Qilian Mountains."

"The servant girl and the household department are right about the situation. As long as the drought does not expand, after the land tax is paid in the five prefectures, the food prices in the three prefectures of Xining will probably be stabilized."

"Even if there is a gap, the court only needs to allocate 30 taels of silver, and 60 stone grains can be purchased locally to continue disaster relief."

"As for Shaanxi, except for Xi'an and Fengxiang, the millions of immigrants in the Hetao land have their own food stamps, and the land tax in the Guanzhong Plain accounts for two-fifths of Shaanxi, and this year in Henan, only Nanyang is affected. Therefore, grain from Changping can be dispatched from Henan to support Guanzhong, and more than three million disaster victims in Guanzhong will be safe.”

"Although Taiyuan and Datong prefectures in Shanxi are all suffering severe droughts, the droughts in Pingyang, Lu'an and the four prefectures in the south have receded. Using the grain from the two southern prefectures and four prefectures can probably stabilize the grain prices in Taiyuan and Datong. .”

"As far as Northern Zhili is concerned, although seven of the nine prefectures and two prefectures have experienced severe drought, the water network in the south is dense, and since the beginning of the year, there have been six rains in total, and the river is plentiful, so the problem is not big. It is enough for Shuntian Prefecture to adjust grain to stabilize the food prices in Xuanfu, Baoan Prefecture, and Yanqing Prefecture."

"It's not optimistic in the south..." Cao Huachun breathed a sigh of relief, glanced at Zhu Youjian's controllable expression, and continued cautiously: ...

"After Sichuan has undergone administrative changes, it has changed from twelve prefectures, six prefectures, four divisions, one guard, and one guard in the seventh year of Tianqi to 21 prefectures. Now, the land of nine prefectures in eastern Sichuan is suffering from severe drought again, which is worse than the seven prefectures of the apocalypse. The severe drought encountered in Sichuan in [-] spread even more widely."

"After calculations by the Ministry of Household Affairs, more than two million people have been affected on paper. It may be difficult to stabilize food prices based on Chengdu and the other [-] prefectures alone. Therefore, it is urgent to transfer food from Guizhou to stabilize food prices and use labor as relief. "

"In the land of the fourteen prefectures and six prefectures in Huguang, all the nine prefectures in the north that produce grain are currently suffering disasters. The five prefectures and six prefectures in the south of Huguang alone cannot stabilize grain prices at all."

"Additionally, all provinces except Qiongzhou in Guangdong are suffering severe drought, and the grain supply of Guangxi and Fujian is barely stable in the drought-affected two prefectures in this province. Therefore, Jiangxi can only choose one of Huguang and Guangdong to help."

"As for the drought-stricken three prefectures and two prefectures in Southern Zhili, it is enough to stabilize food prices, and there is no need for the imperial court to provide disaster relief..."

According to Cao Huachun, generally speaking, there is only one problem that is difficult to solve, that is, to whom the grain in Jiangxi should be allocated, and how should the major provinces that have not received the grain allocation survive the severe drought.

Zhu Youjian didn't need to think too much about this question, so he said directly:

"Jiangxi's grain is transferred to Huguang to stabilize food prices. If I remember correctly, there should be three to four million people in Guangdong right now, right?"

"Since this is the case, a few hundred thousand people will be relocated to Jiaozhi, Jiugang, Xiaoxiyang and Nanzhou."

"In addition, we will transfer grain from the Ryukyu and Luzon prefectures to stabilize food prices in Guangdong and keep them within [-] renminbi. At the same time, we will increase the scale of work-for-relief."

Regarding the relocation, only Zhu Youjian can make up his mind. The reason why he wants to relocate to Guangdong is not because the imperial court is unable to provide disaster relief to Guangdong, but to prepare for the future large-scale immigration across the country.

If Zhu Youjian remembers correctly, the drought in Guangdong will end next year. Although there have been relapses since then, it is not as big as it is now affecting a province.

On the contrary, Jiangxi, a province with a large population, will encounter a severe drought. Once a province with a population of more than 500 million on paper like Jiangxi encounters a severe drought, it can only mobilize resources from several provinces to stabilize local food prices.

But the problem is that in the second wave of severe drought, the three populous provinces of Nanzhili, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang will all suffer from drought.

If this place, which occupies three-fifths of the population of Ming Dynasty, encounters a drought, it will be difficult to control it even if it mobilizes national and overseas grain and fodder.

The people in the south of the Yangtze River have money, and when the time comes to buy food, the victims in the north will all starve to death. This is also the reason why the uprising wave in the north could not be stopped in the ninth year of Chongzhen in history.

In Zhu Youjian's vision, once there is a severe drought in Jiangxi, the population will immediately migrate to Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Huguang and other places.

As for Nanzhili and Zhejiang, which are close to the sea, they migrated to Yingzhou and the old port.

But to ensure that the migration speed is fast enough, there must be a steam engine ship.

Right now, the [-] merchant ships and cargo ships of Ming Dynasty can relocate thousands of people at one go, but they can go back and forth to Yingzhou six times a year at most, and Luzon four times from north to south.

Although the number of ships can guarantee millions of immigrants every year, if there is a steam engine ship, even if only a version of the steam engine ship such as the "Archimedes" is developed, the number of migrations can be increased to twelve times to and from Yingzhou. Traveled to and from Luzon eight times. …

The number of one million immigrants can be increased to 150 million immigrants.

Although the technology of Ming Dynasty was not as good as that of European countries in the late nineteenth century, it was superior in that it had more people and ships.

In the 60s when there was no steam engine ship, European countries still maintained a population migration of more than [-] people every year even though they spent a lot of energy fighting wars, and it was impossible for Ming Dynasty to be worse than them.

They only relocated people who were too poor to survive in Europe, but what Daming wanted to relocate were the victims who were about to starve to death.

In this case, it's not about whether the people will leave or not, but whether your court has enough money and food for the people to eat, and whether the boats are enough to transport the people overseas.

Migration of population, in the short term, is a loss-making business in itself.

For example, the Ming Dynasty relocated nearly 400 million people to Xiaoxiyang, Jiugang, Nanzhou and other places. It took nearly four years and cost nearly 5000 million shimimai, more than [-] cattle, and more than [-] Mules and horses.

However, it was not until this year that the old port officially paid taxes, and according to the budget of the Ministry of Household Affairs, it will take at least 13 years for the old port to pay off the investment made by the imperial court.

This is still to master Malacca and the old port, which already has tens of millions of acres of arable land, and imports millions of taels of gold and silver mines every year. It is even more difficult to switch to other places.

According to the statistics of the officials of the Ministry of Household Affairs, the investment in Nanzhou is the largest. If a commoner is relocated, he needs to pay taxes honestly for 30 years in order to pay off the investment made by the imperial court.

Followed by Hetao, Liaodong, Hexi and other places...

But Zhu Youjian didn't care. After all, although there were a lot of 5000 million shimimai, it was only enough to ensure that the more than [-] million people who suffered from severe drought would have enough to eat for six or seven years.

After the relocation of the population, some provinces that suffered from severe drought reduced the government's investment in disaster relief in disguise because the per capita land increased.

For example, Henan, Shanxi, and Beizhili are all benchmarks.

If it hadn't been for the relocation of 200 million Henan disaster victims to Liaodong around the Ming Dynasty, the people in Henan would definitely not have enough food for self-sufficiency.

Even though the provinces surrounding Henan, such as Shaanxi, Shanxi, Huguang, Nanzhili, and Beizhili, suffered from famine, the price of grain in Henan remained stable at 460 a stone.

Even if the imperial court bought millions of rice and wheat from Henan many times, the grain price in Henan remained unaffected.

To put it bluntly, although the paper population in Henan has been increasing, since the migration of people in the second year of Tianqi, the local yellow book has never exceeded 600 million people.

Xu Hongru's rebellion raged in Henan and dealt with a large number of gentry and tyrants. Zhu Youjian also dealt with the guards and released the land of the vassal kings, causing the court to distribute nearly 3000 million mu of cultivated land.

The rural people in Henan can say that each household has thirty to forty mu of land, and each person has five or six mu of land.

If there is a food self-sufficiency rate in this era, Henan is definitely the place where the people have the highest food holdings.

However, this does not mean that Zhu Youjian can buy food from Henan as much as possible, because Henan still has an upper limit after all.

1000 million shimimai are exported every year, which is the upper limit in Henan, and any more will affect the local food price. …

What Zhu Youjian has to do is actually to turn every province of Ming Dynasty into the current Henan.

People in the countryside can live a prosperous life by farming alone, while people in the city have jobs because of the flowering factories everywhere.

Huangdian is responsible for selling goods, allowing the economy to circulate and forming a virtuous circle.

In this way, the imperial court only needs to pay attention to ensuring the arable land of the rural people and the employment of the urban population.

But to play this way, some impoverished areas in populous provinces must be moved out as much as possible.

As long as each province is self-sufficient, this little glacier drought should not be a problem.

Therefore, the places that need to be concerned are actually the three provinces of Nanzhili, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Zhejiang.

"Prepare in the three capital provinces of Nanzhili, Jiangxi, Fujian, and Zhejiang. Let Sun Chuanting lead people to govern the three provinces in Beijing. Those who should be arrested and those who should be affected will be moved out, and the land will be distributed to them. tenant."

Zhu Youjian looked at Lu Wenzhao, and explained one sentence emphatically, and Lu Wenzhao also understood, and bowed in response.

Generally speaking, this year's Ming Dynasty is still implementing the three-axes policy.

The first is to implement state-run operations and collect evaded taxes that the gentry avoided in the past.

The second is to fight and migrate abroad, so that Daming, an "old man" who was crumbling by land annexation, can regain his youth little by little.

The third is to do a good job in the economy, whether it is external or internal, in short, it is necessary to solve the problem of silver tightening in Ming Dynasty.

By solving these problems step by step, Daming will be able to explode to his size sooner or later.

Perhaps in the eyes of Menezes, Peterson and others, being able to send hundreds of thousands of people to India in one go is already an unprecedented capability that can only be possessed by a huge empire.

But for Daming, 200 years ago, Daming only had a population of more than 6000 million, and when the country was also in dire straits, it was able to support tens of thousands of people to reach Africa.

Today, more than 200 years later, if Daming can only burst out with such potential, then he will come back alive more and more.

What Daming wants is not revival, but a road to prosperity that surpasses the prosperity of Kaiyuan.

If Zhu Youjian can restore the contradiction of land annexation step by step to the level of the Hongwu period, then Ming Dynasty can prosper for another hundred years.

This is what he thought, and he did the same thing, and the policy of overseas migration of people, the current more than 400 million people is just a prelude, the real beginning is the war of the feudal clans...

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian flickered his eyes, and said to Cao Huachun:
"All the prisoners from this year onwards will be moved to the Champa Mansion in Cochin, except for those who have been approved by me."

"Tell the local county government that these prisoners cannot die, and the court still expects them to contribute to the court."

"Your servant understands." Cao Huachun knew why Zhu Youjian cared so much about the prisoner's life and death.

To put it bluntly, even if they are prisoners, they are also prisoners of Ming Dynasty, and they are Han Chinese.

As long as they are Han Chinese, they can be transferred to the various vassals.

Counting the time, it won't take long for the feudal war to start, and every prisoner will be paid ten taels of silver by then.

At this time, Zhu Youjian and others didn't know that the war among the feudal clans had actually started. Not only had it started, Huanglong had also won a province. …

Therefore, after Cao Huachun responded, Zhu Youjian said to Lu Wenzhao:
"The vassal kings who want to move to Tianzhu have all gathered in the capital, right?"

"Almost, almost all have arrived, and some are still on the way, but it is expected to arrive in the capital in April." Lu Wenzhao nodded, and Zhu Youjian nodded slightly.

"Tianzhu is enfeoffed, and Levia will be entrusted next, but Levia is no better than Tianzhu, not to mention that it is not easy to manage when it is entrusted, and the local environment is not good."

"You send someone to send a letter to the kings who haven't taken pictures of the feudal land, asking them to arrive in the capital before September, and I will ask Xu Xiake to introduce Levia to them, so that they can consider whether to take the feudal domain by themselves."

Zhu Youjian is not going to deceive the feudal vassals to ruin the credibility of the imperial court. Whether Levia is good or bad, what is good and what is bad, he will make it clear.

If the feudal vassals are unwilling, then Daming can still attack Persia.

After all, based on Persia's attitude towards Xu Xiake and others, it would not be so guilty to start.

As far as Fan Levia is concerned, the most worrying thing is the problem of disease and land.

Regarding the issue of land, the Ming Dynasty had local methods to improve the land. Although it was slow and consumed a lot of manpower, it was Levia, and people everywhere were waiting for the feudal lords.

As for how the feudal vassals use them, it has nothing to do with him, Zhu Youjian. He just let the feudal vassals take their place, but he didn't let the vassals do other things. Don't pour dirty water on him. The emperor should be scolded...

Thinking of his brother, Zhu Youjian smiled.

But after laughing, he continued to explain to Lu Wenzhao:
"Be careful with Yingzhou, and by the way, ask Lu Jianxing to tell Yan Siqi to expand the scope of the spread. As long as it is large enough, the imperial court does not mind giving him a title and returning to Beijing to retire."

A person like Yan Siqi's ability is not as good as the top, and it's not enough compared to the bottom, but this is also his advantage.

Zhu Youjian just needs someone who can take the blame, and Yan Siqi is willing to take the blame, so it doesn't hurt to give him a title.

As long as enough people can be involved, and the Ming army's scapegoat in Yingzhou can be blamed on Yan Siqi, and Jin Xuan comes to power again, it will be much easier for Qi to rule America.

If it weren't for Yan Siqi's battle loss ratio that made Zhu Youjian a little dissatisfied, he would not have sent Yang Wenyue and Wu Aheng.

After this battle is over, Yang Wenyue and Wu Aheng will almost be able to climb to the false title of the first rank. After that, as long as the country is calmed down a little bit, and then they use troops against Jianlu, they can all be awarded a title.

"By the way, Your Highness, Director Xu landed in Tianjin on March [-]th, and then made a pilgrimage to Beijing to report on his duties on the first day of April."

Cao Huachun spoke suddenly, and Zhu Youjian came back to his senses.

Thinking of the number one traveler in the late Ming Dynasty, he gradually began to look forward to it...

------

"Tuk Tuk!"

"come in"

While Zhu Youjian was looking forward to it, in the Dengzhou military camp on the Bohai Imperial City Island, there was a knock on the door of Xu Xiake's room, and Xu Xiake answered without raising his head.

Sunlight poured into the room through the window, and Xu Xiake was taking the completed "Journey to the West" for final correction.

He originally thought that the visitor was his good friend, Wang Zhaoxiong and Wang Muzhi, but he never thought that when he heard the sound of the visitor stepping on the wooden plank, he slowly raised his head to look at the visitor.

I saw that the person who appeared in the house was the Siamese boy who came with the food, and Xu Xiake also showed a kind smile when he saw the other party:

"Song Mutica..."

On the three-month return journey, Xu Xiake and Song Mutica often communicated when they disembarked. The reason was that Xu Xiake wanted to learn Siamese, so that when he visited Siam in the future, he could experience Siam's customs, mountains and rivers.

After going back and forth, the two naturally became friends who forgot their years.

Later, after getting off the boat, Song Mutica became Xu Xiake's attendant, and Xu Xiake counted the time, and it was almost time for lunch.

So after he called the other party's name, he waved his hand and said:

"Come on, together..."

"Master!"

"What are you doing?"

Something happened that Xu Xiake didn't expect, Song Mutica knelt down in front of him, and still performed the grand ceremony of Jishou.

Xu Xiake was surprised by his move, and then frowned.

He thought it was Song Mutica who knew that he was going to arrive in the capital in a few days, so he was reluctant to express his gratitude, but he never thought that Song Mutica would raise his head suddenly and vented:
"Please master and Daming save Siam..."