I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 773 There was once an opportunity before me
Zhu Yijun would never indulge such strange requests.

An urgent report was sent to Tianshandusi at an express speed of 800 miles.

Soon, the Tianshan South Route Xingdusi, which had just destroyed the Yarkand Khanate, first sent out a small reconnaissance team, led by a caravan and horse gang, and then the Solon Assault Infantry Regiment set out from Khotan.

After passing through the Karakoram Pass and crossing the Dumurao area, they appeared at the foot of Leh like heavenly soldiers.

The defenders were in a panic and could not resist the Solon assault infantry, who were as ferocious as a Siberian tiger and used muskets and grenades alternately. In less than two hours, Leh fell.

The Oris Military and Civilian Marshal's Office was destroyed, and then the Ming Dynasty established the Bolor Thousand Households Office there.

Even the Oris Military and Civilian Marshal's Office, far away in western Tibet and hiding in the deep mountains and snow-covered areas of the Pamir Plateau, was destroyed, and the entire U-Tsang became more harmonious.

Tribal leaders, big and small, reported to the Tibet Xuanzheng Office in Lhasa one after another and presented lists and maps of their own people, slaves, cattle, sheep, and pastures.

Emperor Taizu established the ancestral system that slaves were not allowed in the Ming Dynasty.

As we all know, those people in the Ming Dynasty who sold themselves as slaves to wealthy families all signed employment contracts and were hired workers.

Some have been committed to being slaves since childhood, and they go through the procedure of worship and recognition, calling their master daddy and their mistress mommy, and they are all family members!
When the Xuanzhengshisi was established in U-Tsang and incorporated into the territory of the Ming Dynasty, slavery was not allowed and all people were citizens of the Ming Dynasty. The bloody slavery system in the past must also be abolished, and they must accept the cleansing of the Ming Dynasty civilization and move towards a new era together.

Zhang Juzheng said that the population statistics of the two Xuanzhengshisi in Qinghai and U-Tsang were 1.3 million, of which 600,000 were in Qinghai and 700,000 were in U-Tsang.

There are 700,000 people, but there are hundreds of chiefs, big and small, who have hundreds or thousands of followers on average, and the larger ones have tens of thousands of civilians.

With such a small number of troops, do you have the nerve to ask the Ming Dynasty to confer upon you the title of king, or grant you the title of commander-in-chief, marshal, or commander of ten thousand households?

Who are you guys slandering?
Are the titles and official ranks of the Ming Dynasty so worthless?
Zhang Juzheng continued: "The remaining 42.32 million people benefited from the government's construction of hospitals and clinics in various towns and cities in the Ming Dynasty, the training of barefoot doctors in the countryside, and the promotion of health knowledge such as boiling water before drinking, burying garbage deep, not urinating or defecating anywhere, and washing hands before eating. As a result, the health of the people has improved and their life expectancy has been extended.

The most important of these was the establishment of obstetrics departments in towns and cities and the urban and rural obstetrics plan of one midwife per village. The plan vigorously promoted scientific childbirth and healthy parenting, which rapidly reduced the infant mortality rate.

The survival rate of children under ten years old has also been greatly improved since the implementation of disease prevention vaccination programs in various places since the first year of the Wanli reign.”

The stillbirth rate refers to the number of babies who die before one month of age.

However, under the previous sanitary and medical conditions, it was very difficult for a baby to survive to the age of ten.

"According to incomplete statistics from the Ministry of Rites' Medical Affairs Department and the Imperial Hospital, the infant mortality rate in the two capitals of the north and south, the two direct-controlled prefectures of Luan and Shanghai, and twenty cities including Shenyang, Pyongyang, Hanyang, Tianjin, Yangzhou, Taiyuan, Xi'an, Luoyang, Kaifeng, Baoqing, Wuchang, Changsha, Chengdu, Nanchang, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Jiaozhou, and Xinzhou* dropped from 41% in the first year of the Wanli reign to 16% in the fourth year of the Wanli reign.

The mortality rate among children under ten years of age dropped from 39 percent to 19 percent.

It is precisely because of these measures that the population of the Ming Dynasty increased by 42.32 million in three years!"

Zhang Juzheng put down the document and said with emotion: "When the emperor implemented these measures, it required huge financial, material and human resources. Many officials did not understand and all kinds of weird things happened.

But looking back now, these measures are unprecedented benevolent and kind policies, far surpassing those of Yao and Shun.

This is the true love of the people as one’s own children.”

Everyone said in unison: "Your Majesty is more benevolent than Yao and Shun, and his virtue matches heaven and earth."

Zhu Yijun waved his hand calmly.

The population increased by 42.32 million in three years, which was also beyond his expectations.

If you think about it carefully, this result is a stress response, that is, you suddenly turn the steering wheel and the effect of the reaction is also quite obvious.

The effect will be significantly weakened later.

Now the development of medical and health care in Ming Dynasty has reached a bottleneck.

It will be difficult to further reduce the infant mortality rate and the mortality rate of ten-year-old children unless antibiotics and vaccines against diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus and polio are invented.

Zhang Juzheng picked up the document again and continued reading: "In the fourth year of the Wanli reign, the Ming Dynasty counted 872.79 million mu of farmland, an increase of 96 million mu compared to the first year of the Wanli reign.

Thirty million mu are farmlands in Jinghai Province, 24 million mu are farmlands in Rinnan Province, and 26 million mu are farmlands in Liaoning and Haidong Provinces.

They were counted and compiled one after another in the second year of the Wanli period.

The Tiannan, U-Tsang and Qinghai Xuanzhengshisi only added less than 5 million mu of farmland. "

This is understandable. Those places are either extremely cold or extremely dry, and provide little arable land. It is estimated that only the Fergana Valley, Turpan and Hami regions contribute more.

There are mostly arid and semi-arid grassland pastures.

"The remaining 11 million mu of farmland was added after Hunan developed the Dongting Lake and the Xiang, Yuan, Zi and Li River areas, and after Haidong and Jinghai provinces developed water conservancy projects.

Of course, after Bozhou was incorporated into Guizhou and renamed Zunyi County, Guizhou, which was very successful in its policy of converting native peoples into officials, also contributed 1.75 million acres of farmland.

In the fourth year of the Wanli reign, the land tax collected was 61.18 million shi, an increase of 16.2 million shi compared to the first year of the Wanli reign.

Since the first year of the Wanli reign, the imperial court implemented the policy of three exemptions and five reductions for the people's reasonable reclamation of wasteland, so a large amount of newly added cultivated land tax has not yet begun to be collected.

Even so, our dynasty’s land tax exceeded 60 million dan for the first time! Calculated based on our dynasty’s average land tax of 10%, the national grain production in the fourth year of Wanli was 611,180,000 dan.”

Everyone was whispering to each other, discussing excitedly and happily.

Zhang Juzheng looked out from above the brown-black glasses frame, glanced around, coughed lightly twice, and the discussions gradually became quieter and soon returned to silence.

"Guys, this is nothing to be happy about!
Six hundred million shi of grain sounds like a lot, but how many people do we have? With a population of 231 million, each person only gets 260 jin of grain per year, less than one jin per person per day. How can that be enough? Every year, the Ming Dynasty has to import more than 10 million shi of grain from Siam, Chenla, and India to barely feed the people.

Everyone, we have not yet completely solved the important problem of the people of the Ming Dynasty having enough food to eat. The cabinet has not done a good job, and we must continue to work hard! "

The ministers looked at Zhang Juzheng, and many of them felt that Uncle Zhang was too arrogant.

Pretending!

Openly disparaging but secretly praising!

The average person only has 260 kilograms of food per year. This is the average, my Zhang Xiang.

A strong young man may not be able to eat even a pound of food a day!

But what about the baby in the cradle?
What about children wearing open-crotch pants?

What about the old people whose teeth are falling out sparsely?

Do they also need a pound of food a day?

Want to starve them to death?

Besides, with the widespread cultivation of corn, potatoes and sweet potatoes in recent years, farmers not only have supplemented their food rations, but also have enough energy to raise pigs, ducks, chickens and geese.

Sinong Temple also attaches great importance to livestock breeding.

Several affiliated agricultural science institutes have cultivated many fine varieties, and the feed mills of the agricultural reclamation company have also produced many high-efficiency feeds, which have improved the disease resistance of livestock and accelerated their growth.

The people had access to plenty of meat to supplement their diet, and with the rapid development of fisheries in rivers, lakes and oceans, fresh seafood became a common dish on the tables of towns in coastal areas.

The people have more food in their stomachs and the demand for staple food is decreasing. There is no shortage of food in various parts of the Ming Dynasty now.

It is obvious that the price of food is getting lower every year, and those powerful families are so worried that their hair is turning white!

Low grain prices hurt farmers, especially those of us who own large amounts of land. We can’t afford it!

What made them most miserable was that not only grain prices were falling, but also land prices. Many people made money and bought houses in towns, then bought stocks of strong companies from banks, and finally bought bonds.

Buying land?

Haha, the land tax is so high!

Moreover, the landless people are now flocking to the big cities to work as factory workers, porters, or sailors on inland vessels.
Anything can earn you more than farming, and with food prices so low, the money you earn in a day is more than enough to support your family.

So why should I work as a slave for the landlord? Wouldn't it be better for me to work as a slave in the city?

Now it is becoming increasingly difficult to find workers for tenants everywhere, and the wages offered are getting higher and higher, further squeezing the income of the powerful families from the fields. These big landlords have a lot of gray hair.

Such a truly peaceful and prosperous era is unprecedented not only in our country, but also in all dynasties. It was realized when you, Zhang Juzheng, was the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister. It's not enough for you to brag!

A villain will become arrogant when he succeeds!
Don’t be fooled by the harmonious atmosphere at the current Advisory Bureau meeting. In fact, there are many members who dislike Zhang Juzheng.

Zhu Yijun's political scheming was inherited from his ancestors. How could he allow such an important decision-making body as the Advisory Council to have a monopoly on power?

Zhang Juzheng paid no attention to these strange looks and continued reading: "In the fourth year of the Wanli reign, non-agricultural tax revenue totaled 182.97 million yuan, an increase of 61.9% over the first year of the Wanli reign.

The average annual growth rate is 27.3 percent.”

After several years of study, all members of the Advisory Bureau understood what the average annual growth rate meant. Although they did not know how to calculate it, they knew it was more complicated and more accurate than the simple annual growth rate.

"The customs duty amounted to 36.89 million yuan, an increase of 21% over the first year of the Wanli reign. The industrial and commercial transaction tax amounted to 51.93 million yuan, an increase of 26% over the first year of the Wanli reign.

The monopoly tax on salt, sugar, tea and wine totaled 67.84 million yuan, an increase of 97%.

The biggest increase was in tobacco tax, which rose from zero in the first year of the Wanli reign to 37.6 million yuan.

Wang Guoguang and several financial advisors exchanged glances, their eyes sparkling.

The amount of tobacco tax that Zhang Juzheng was thinking about was only part of the tobacco-specific tax collected by the Quyisi (General Monopoly Bureau of Tobacco, Alcohol, Salt, Sugar and Tea).

The Shaofujian used a variety of means such as patent transfer rights, brand licensing fees, and joint venture transfer fees to retain a portion of the tobacco tax in the Shaofujian's hands. The Ministry of Revenue estimated that the amount was 50 million yen.

The actual amount may be far more than this figure.

But this was the agreement reached when the Shaofujian and the Cabinet cooperated in producing cigarettes. Even if the Cabinet and the Ministry of Revenue regretted it, they dared not deny it.

Do you dare to complain to the emperor?

Emperor Wanli was considered good. He ate meat and let the Ministry of Revenue drink soup. If you change to Emperor Shizong and other previous emperors, can you smell the flavor?
But no one expected that cigarettes would have such huge profits!
Now not only Wang Guoguang and several people in the finance department regret it, but even Zhang Juzheng and Zhang Xiang are probably regretting it to death.

At that time, everyone knew that cigarettes were invented by the emperor and Yang Jinshui together, and they had guessed that it was a very profitable business, and had elevated it to the level of the salt industry.

But now, everyone regrets it! We still have no imagination!

Compared with the tobacco tax, the salt tax, which includes the head tax and various corvée and miscellaneous taxes, is just a little brother!

Wang Guoguang now has only one thought: I once had an opportunity to make a fortune. If it happens again, I hope to tell the emperor that I want to split it in half with you.
(End of this chapter)