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Chapter 1442 North Korea has fattened up

However, this time Hong Tao deviated from his usual approach. Instead of taking swift and decisive action, he chose the slowest and most inefficient method: persuading people with reason!

The emperor issued an edict to the Embroidered Uniform Guard, ordering that 500 eligible children be randomly selected each year from more than 100 impoverished areas that had been listed, and that the imperial treasury fund their enrollment in new schools in the prefectures.

After graduation, those with good grades could take the imperial examinations or apply to the Royal Academy. Those with average or poor grades were sent to vocational schools built by the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Chemical Industry, and the Ministry of Agriculture. After two or three years, they would become reserve skilled workers and still be able to earn money to support their families.

What's the point of doing this? Compared to the orphans in the Haihusi, these children are certainly not as loyal. They all have parents; being forced to leave home might even lead them to complain about the emperor's unreasonableness.

Hong Tao didn't want loyalty; he wanted the kind of ostentation that comes with human nature. These children, once they grew up, would either become educated individuals or skilled workers, not only supporting their families but also earning more and living better than most ordinary people.

What should they do at this point? Nine times out of ten, they would choose to carry large bags and small packages, wear their best clothes, and take their accumulated silver coins, traveling thousands of miles to get home.

Returning home in glory is a fundamental element of the Han cultural sphere. From high-ranking officials to humble laborers, no matter where they were, once they achieved something, their first thought was to return home and show it off. No matter how glorious they were in other places, nothing was as satisfying as showing it off to their elders back home.

Whether this habit was good or bad, Hong Tao was too lazy to figure it out, but he certainly put a lot of thought into how to utilize it. You like to show off, huh? Fine, I'll create opportunities for you to show off as much as you want; you won't be able to resist!
When a child graduates, the local government officials will go to the child's home with great fanfare to announce the good news. At the same time, they will tell the villagers how wonderful the outside world is, as if as long as they go out, they will not only have enough to eat and wear, but also have opportunities to get rich everywhere.

Believe it or not, once the children return home in glory, some people will surely be tempted and unable to resist going out to see the world. It won't take many; just one or two children in each village as role models will inspire several times, even ten times, more locals to muster the courage to leave their homes and seek a better life in more economically developed areas.

There will certainly be losers among them, but not many; most will find it easier to live than if they stayed in the poor, remote areas. It's not that the outside world is so much better, but rather that remote areas are too poor. Even if employers in other places don't pay wages and only provide three full meals a day, it's still better than staying at home.

Besides returning home in glory, there's another human tendency: comparison. If your husband goes away for a year and comes back with loads of goodies, the whole family is well-fed, and he even takes the family out to enjoy a life of luxury, then why can't my family do the same?
In this way, the population of remote areas will gradually flow to developed areas. When the loss reaches a certain level, some villages will be abandoned. At this point, the government will face much less resistance when it raises the issue of relocation, and may even gain the support of the locals.

Ten, twenty, or thirty years from now, it's truly possible to reduce the number of impoverished people in the Ming Dynasty to a minimum. As for what to do with these places, there's no need to do anything. Before productivity reaches a certain level, there's no need to waste resources on development. It's more efficient to invest these resources in areas with better natural conditions.

Let those remote mountains and rivers remain undeveloped; it's a way to leave some blank slates for future generations. How they plan for them in the future is their job, and we don't need to overstep our bounds.

"Your Majesty, the King of Joseon is seriously ill. The ambassador to Joseon has sent a military doctor to treat him. He said that there is a high chance that he will not survive the winter. The Yi family has no children, and the collateral branches have also died out. If there is really no one to inherit the throne, the Ministry of Rites has a plan for whether to establish or depose the king, but we still need to ask for your permission to make a decision."

Early this morning, Hong Tao personally received 11 outstanding graduates from remote areas at the Meridian Gate. He first encouraged them with words, then bestowed some gifts upon them, before releasing these promising young talents out of the palace, allowing them to return home in glory.

Back in the Hall of Mental Cultivation, before he could even savor the moment, Wang Chengen presented him with a memorial. After years of ravaging the Joseon Dynasty with food and medicine, their lineage had finally died out, and it was time to reap the rewards. However, the Ministry of Rites dared not make a decision on whether to continue with a puppet king or annex the Joseon to the Ming Dynasty. "First, have the Ministry of Rites release the news of the discovery of the Joseon illegitimate son, and see if any treacherous individuals emerge. Then we'll decide based on the situation! In a few days, bring out the case files of the Joseon Special Zone for discussion at the Imperial Conference, and see if there's anything that needs to be added or revised."

The Korean state could have been incorporated into the Ming Dynasty's territory fifteen years ago. While there was some resistance, it didn't cause much trouble.

At this time, the major cities of Joseon were almost entirely factories and shops run by Ming merchants. After several purges, all the civil and military officials had become pro-Ming supporters, and there was no particular resistance from the common people to the court.

But Hong Tao had been waiting, waiting for the complete severance of the Yi family line in North Korea. He wasn't doing this out of fear of dissent, but rather because he preferred to avoid trouble.

Given Korea's natural resources, it's difficult to compare with other overseas territories. As a vassal state, the Ming Empire didn't have to bear too much responsibility. To put it bluntly, even if half of the Koreans starved to death, no one would accuse the Ming emperor of disregarding human life.

If they were incorporated into the Ming Dynasty's territory, then the Koreans would become Ming citizens. This is a population of several million; they cannot be allowed to go hungry, freeze, or be exposed to wind and rain. At least half of their food must be provided by the Ming Dynasty each year, making it a truly enormous burden.

However, with the passage of time and changes in the global landscape, North Korea's status has significantly improved, and it is now possible to consider annexing it. Although the peninsula lacks readily available resources and requires a constant influx of food, the value of its millions of inhabitants has increased.

Conquering most of the cities in the Viceroyalty of Peru by force was only the first step. To truly gain a foothold on the American continent, large-scale immigration was an essential step.

However, the Ming Empire, with its population of over 100 million, was experiencing a shortage of people. After the Dutch were driven out, a power vacuum emerged on Java and Sumatra. This was a huge hole that needed to be filled immediately; even if there were no plans to develop the islands, they had to secure a foothold first.

After the war, the Governorate of Port-en-Provence also began to settle immigrants to continue to consolidate its role as a fortress in the area, thus deterring Europeans from launching any further attacks.

Colombo Port, too, needs to import people; it's an unsinkable mothership in the Indian Ocean. Holding the Indian subcontinent in one hand and keeping an eye on the countries surrounding the Arabian Sea in the other, it's worthy of significant investment.

In just these few regions alone, a rough calculation shows that it would take at least two to three million immigrants to have any significant effect. A hundred million and two million may sound like a large difference, but in reality, it's very difficult to gather that number. The main reason is that the number of poor people in the Ming Dynasty itself is decreasing, and those who can barely survive are unwilling to leave their homes and venture out into the world.

Therefore, these immigrants could not be filled solely by the local people of the Ming Dynasty. Korea became the easiest, lowest-cost, and least risky source of population.

(End of this chapter)