Starting in Saarhu, it is a bit difficult to make a comeback.

Chapter 237: Little Jade Can Return to "Three Announcements and Six Comforts" (please subscribe for monthly tickets)

The Little Glacier climate continues to wreak havoc on the land of China, especially in the north, which has suffered heavy losses in food production.

Last year, the temperature in Liaodong reached a new low. Not to mention wheat, even the production of potatoes and sweet potatoes was significantly reduced.

Fortunately, Huguang's grain production has recovered.

With the developed water system and the imperial court's powerful transportation capabilities, there was finally no major famine across the country.

After nearly a year of land and population census, the cultivated land and population data of China in the first year of Qianlongxi have finally been released.

The population of China as a whole is 1.38 million, which is more than double the previous population data.

Of course, this includes the populations of North Korea, Taiwan, Ryukyu, Monan and Nurgandusi.

The population of North Korea is 680 million, a decrease of more than 1100% from the peak of more than 4 million during the Wanli period.

The population of Ryukyu is 38, that of Taiwan is 108 million, and the population of the entire Monan region is only 73.

Nurgan Dusi, including the population of Ye He's left and right guards, only has 23.2 people.

The total population of these newly conquered areas did not exceed 1000 million, which means that the original Ming Dynasty had a population of nearly 1.3 million.

Among them, after Li Xianzhong's large-scale immigration for more than 10 years, the population of Liaodong soared to 826 million, almost three times that of the early Wanli years.

However, the population of Henan, Shaanxi, Huguang and Sichuan provinces has been significantly reduced due to Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng's wanton destruction.

However, there was no such thing as the uninhabited situation in later generations.

Although Sichuan has experienced Zhang Xianzhong's abuse and Li Dingguo's subsequent massacre of the chieftain population, there are still 423 million people.

Among them, Southern Zhili ranks first in the country with 2117 million people.

The Chinese court completely abolished the poll tax, and a large number of hidden people in southern Zhili were released.

The population of the Yunnan-Guizhou region may not be that accurate, but this number is still basically reliable.

There has always been a big problem with the cultivated land data of the Ming Dynasty. In the early years of Hongwu, the cultivated land was 3.66 million acres. In the 28th year of Hongwu, it suddenly jumped to 8.5 million acres, and in the second year of Jianwen, it became 4.2 million acres.

This 8.5 million mu of cultivated land is definitely unreliable. After that, it remained within 5 million mu, and suddenly became 8.2 million mu during the Chenghua period, and then dropped to 4.7 million mu during the Hongzhi period.

Relatively speaking, the measurement with greater reference value is the measurement organized by Zhang Juzheng during the Wanli period. First of all, Zhang Juzheng unified the issue of large and small acres.

Then that land survey lasted three or four years.

In addition to the cultivated land under each chief envoy, the cultivated land in border towns was also measured.

Nearly 3000 million acres of land were added to the towns in Jiubian, increasing the total cultivated land in the Ming Dynasty to 7.8 million acres.

The total cultivated land in China this time is 8 million acres.

Among them, North Korea has 1280 million acres of cultivated land, Taiwan has 400 million acres of cultivated land, Ryukyu has 32 acres of cultivated land, and Monan has 88 acres of cultivated land.

Excluding the nearly 2000 million acres of cultivated land in these areas, the actual cultivated land area of ​​Ming Dynasty is 7.8 trillion acres.

Although the total number is basically consistent with the data from the Wanli period, the data between provinces vary greatly.

First, the cultivated land in Liaodong increased to 1000 million acres, an increase of three times compared with the Wanli period.

Secondly, the cultivated land in Shandong decreased by more than 2000 million acres. It can be seen that the acres in Shandong were obviously overreported last time.

The number of acres in Henan and Huguang has also decreased compared with that in the Wanli period.

Except that Yunnan and Guizhou did not conduct a thorough inventory and continued to use previous data, the 8 million acres of cultivated land in China is basically reliable.

If the Little Glacier weather hadn't caused a massive reduction in grain production in the north, there would have been no problem feeding an additional 200 million people on these cultivated lands.

After all, high-yield crops such as sweet potatoes, potatoes, and corn have been fully promoted.

With the large grasslands in Monan, mutton and dairy products from the northern region are also put on the market in large quantities.

In the south, raising poultry and pigs is encouraged.

Currently, the number of cattle in the country is generally insufficient, so a large number of grassland cattle in the north are being domesticated into cattle.

After one to two generations of reproduction, prairie cattle will gradually adapt to become farm cattle.

This also greatly improves the efficiency of farming and land reclamation.

In addition, Xu Guangqi's "Agricultural Policy Encyclopedia" was vigorously promoted throughout the country through the Ministry of Industry, which increased the use of fertilizers and began to increase grain production.

Although there are not many minerals in Annan, the Red River Plain is a rare source of food.

Although the output value of grain is not high, without food the Chinese Empire will definitely stop expanding.

Although the whole of Annan was in chaos, a lot of fertile land was cultivated north of the Red River thanks to the efforts of a large number of Chinese immigrants.

Naturally, the more of this high-yielding farmland with three crops a year, the better.

The harvest of these lands must be completely in the hands of the Chinese court, otherwise the local indigenous people will multiply in large numbers, which will in turn affect the rule of China.

Considering that Annan still needed the Li Dynasty puppet government to transition for a while, Sun Chuanting proposed to Li Xianzhong a plan to restore China's "three proclamations and six comforts" in Indochina.

After Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, in order to maintain the Ming Dynasty's rule in the southwestern region, he established two Xuanfu divisions, Nandian and Ganya, Luchuan, Liuwei, Burma, Mubang, Babaidadian, Mengyang, and Laos. A propaganda envoy.

During Zhu Di's reign, three more Xuanwei Envoys, Diwuci, Dagoci, and Demassa, were added. In this way, there were a total of two Xuanfu Envoys and ten Xuanwei Envoys.

Later, the three Xuanwei Envoys of Diwuci, Daguci, and Demaszu were too far away from the Ming Dynasty and difficult to manage, so they were abolished.

During the Xuande period, the Luchuan Xuanwei Division was renamed the Longchuan Xuanfu Division because of a rebellion that triggered a conquest by the Ming army.

At this point, the Ming Dynasty's Three Propaganda and Six Comforts were completely formed.

Among the three Xuanwei and Liuwei, the three Xuanxuan refers to the Nandian Xuanfu Division, Ganya Xuanfu Division, and Longchuan Xuanfu Division, and the six comforts refer to the Che Xuanwei Division, Myanmar Xuanwei Division, and Mubang Xuanwei Division. , Babaidadian Xuanwei Division, Mengyang Xuanwei Division, and Laos Xuanwei Division. Except for some of the three Xuanwei and Six Wei divisions located in Yunnan, most of them are located in today's Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and other places.

Sanxuan and Liuwei are actually the Ming Dynasty’s rule of chieftains and governors in Indochina. Both the Xuanwei Envoys and the Xuanfu Envoys are local administrative agencies dedicated to governing ethnic minorities. The Xuanwei Envoys and Xuanfu Envoys The department is generally under the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Household Affairs. The Xuanwei envoy is from the third rank, and the Xuanfu envoy is from the fourth rank.

Of course, compared with the normal envoys of Xuanzheng, both the envoys of Xuan comfort and the envoys of Xuanfu are equivalent to the Tu emperor in their fiefdoms. They have all military, administrative, judicial, financial and other rights, and they can take the life and death of the people under their rule, just like They are like the princes of the Zhou Dynasty.

The imperial court issued gold-lettered red cards to the Xuanfu envoys and Xuanwei envoys of the Three Annals and Six Welfares. As a token of the imperial court, whenever a new emperor ascended the throne or a chieftain changed, the Ming Dynasty central government would issue new gold-lettered red cards to strengthen the protection of the three. Proclaim the control of Liuwei and establish effective reporting relationships.

However, as Xuanzong abandoned Annan, the Ming Dynasty's deterrence in Indochina began to decline. By the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the Three Proclaims and Six Weasles no longer obeyed the orders of the Ming Dynasty's central government, and they began to annex each other. During this period, due to the Burmese Xuanwei The annexation war launched by Simang Shenglong has penetrated deep into Yunnan in the Ming Dynasty.

Although the Ming Dynasty also sent troops to intervene, for example, during the Wanli period, Liu Wei and Deng Zilong entered Myanmar and defeated the Myanmar army.

However, the Ming Dynasty's financial situation was no longer able to support a long-term expedition, and in the end they had to sit back and watch Myanmar continue to grow.

By the Jiajing period, only the "Sanxuan" and the Chexuanwei Department of the Ming Dynasty were left; the remaining "Five Wei", the Lao Xuanwei Department was independent, and the 800 Dadian Xuanwei Department was taken over by Siam. Annexed, Mubang Xuanwei Division and Mengyang Xuanwei Division were occupied by Myanmar Xuanwei Division. With the rise of the Toungoo Dynasty in Myanmar, Ming Dynasty actually lost control of Myanmar.

Sun Chuanting's idea coincides with Li Xianzhong's.

Rather than being killed in vain, these thugs in Annan might as well use them to conquer Laos next door.

No matter who dies, it will be beneficial to China's rule.

However, Southeast Asia is really too poor. After all, there are gold mines in the Philippines. If I attack here aggressively, it will definitely be a losing business.

Although Manila's gold and Annan's food can provide certain support for the subsequent expansion.

But how to fool those investors in China into spending money requires some thought.

In future generations, investors will have to "tell stories". Li Xianzhong thought about it and found that Myanmar still has many special products, such as rubies.

By the way, there is jade in Myanmar!

Chinese people have a special liking for jade.

The Netherlands can go crazy for tulips, why can't they create a jade fever in China?

He remembered that when he ascended the throne, Mu Tianbo, Duke of Guizhou, sent him a batch of fine sun-green jadeite.

I didn't pay much attention to it at the time, but now it's just used for publicity.

The popularity of this era is from top to bottom. As long as it is promoted among the upper class ladies, jade bracelets will soon become popular.

Moreover, Chinese people have had the habit of wearing jade pendants since ancient times, and those jade plaques can also be made.

People in this era regard jadeite as "valuing color rather than planting" and only value whether jadeite is green or not. They do not have very high requirements for planting water.

In this way, you can purchase a large number of high-quality parallel products at relatively cheap prices.

Especially those high-quality purple jade, which is almost "cabbage price".

Then he will promote the value of growing water and speculate it, which will bring him a lot of income.

Now that Yunnan and Myanmar are not under his direct control, the price of jade must be high.

When these people see the value of jade, are they afraid that they won't pay for it?

Soon Li Xianzhong found Zhu Chunchen. Zhu Chunchen, who held several gold mine shares in Manila and bought a large number of estates, could be said to have enjoyed the first wave of benefits from overseas colonization.

I was naturally very happy when I heard that Li Xianzhong had found a new way to make money.

Today's Zhu Chunchen is not a simple man. Behind him are a large number of nobles from the capital and wealthy businessmen from the north.

It was a huge investment team, and its influence was comparable to that of Li Xianzhong back then, who had become a pivotal figure in the Chinese business community.

The Jubaozhai in his hands is the most famous jewelry store in the capital. It became an instant success thanks to Li Xianzhong giving him Dongzhu, and now it has opened all over the country.

Li Xianzhong first gave a batch of jadeite to his concubines and some meritorious officials in a high-profile manner.

These crystal clear emeralds quickly attracted everyone's attention.

Whether it's a woman's bracelet or those exquisitely carved jade medals, those who are rewarded can't put it down and wear them constantly to show off!

Under Zhu Chunchen's operation, jade gradually became popular and its price continued to rise.

In the heaven and earth of the capital, someone actually spent 2 taels of silver to take a picture of an imperial green bracelet, just to make a beauty smile!

Bracelets suddenly became popular.

The ladies of the capital were all proud to get a good jade bracelet. For a while, jade bracelets became the standard equipment for women to get married.

The scholar-bureaucrats also began to wear fine jade medals and ring rings, as well as give some jade Buddha statues and small accessories to the children at home.

After all, there are many levels of jade quality.

In addition to the traditional imperial green, sun green, apple green, clear water green, purple jade, yellow jade, and red jade are also gradually accepted by people.

And while people pay attention to the color, they also start to value the water.

In addition to the finest glass jade, there are also ice jade, glutinous ice, bean jade, oil green and so on.

In just a few months, China began to experience a wave of jade fever.

From bean seeds worth dozens of taels each to imperial green worth tens of thousands taels, it can be said that it covers all classes.

But here comes the problem. The jadeite hoarded by those Yunnan merchants and chieftains had long since been purchased. Purchasing goods from Myanmar is not only a long journey, but also full of dangers along the way.

With the shortage of supply, the price of jade has been rising all the way, and other jade products have also risen.

The chieftains in Yunnan no longer competed for land, but began to compete for jade mines.

However, the jade mines in Yunnan are not only scarce, but also of poor quality.

So Mu Tianbo, the Duke of Guizhou, entangled a group of chieftains in Yunnan and began to invade Myanmar.

It is indeed not accurate to say that it was an invasion. After all, Myanmar was originally the territory of the Ming Dynasty. Although it is now the Ming Dynasty of China, it should naturally be the homeland of China.

In fact, Mu Tianbo, the Duke of Guizhou, did not have very strong control over Yunnan chieftains. Many chieftains would obey his instructions but not his propaganda!

But in the past few months, businessmen from the mainland have poured into Yunnan like crazy.

The jade products in their hands that could only be used for decoration were replaced with almost everything they needed (except weapons).

These toasts quickly realized the importance of jade!

The Toungoo dynasty of Myanmar is actually very powerful. They have been invading and infiltrating Yunnan for many years.

On weekdays, even if they had some courage, they would not dare to take the initiative in Myanmar.

But now they are all risking their lives for the jade.

All the major chieftains in Yunnan are concentrated in Kunming. They are only doing one thing, which is to support Mu Tianbo, Duke of Guizhou, and conquer Burma.

The 5 Yunnan chieftain coalition forces outside Kunming and the 2 Chinese troops under the Yunnan Capital Command and Envoys Controlled by Mu Tianbo are ready to go.

Mu Tianbo asked Yang Sichang on the side and said: "Yang Benbing, can we really win Myanmar in one fell swoop this time?"

Yang Sichang has been incognito since he escaped from Bagong Mountain with Chongzhen's crown prince Zhu Cixiang.

He knew very well that without Chongzhen himself, even if he took the prince to Nanjing, it would not be possible.

Things turned out as he expected. It took Li Xianzhong just over a year to conquer the south, and soon replaced the Ming Dynasty.

Now Yunnan is his last hope. The reason why he provoked Mu Tianbo to send troops to Burma was because he had his own considerations. He wanted to use the southwest as a base to revive the Ming Dynasty in the future!

Yang Sichang said: "Don't worry, Duke Qian, this expedition to Burma will be a complete victory!"

Thank you to all book friends for your support with monthly tickets, recommendation tickets, and follow-up subscriptions!

(End of this chapter)