My Pen Pal Zhu Yuanzhang

Chapter 340 Lao Zhu's New Idea
As the trial production of the Dingyuan-class ironclad battleship officially got on track, Zhu Yuanzhang could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

The stability of a country lies in the stability of scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans. Needless to say, the court officials can basically do their jobs, while the military generals are eager to go overseas to make achievements.

After more than a year of competition with the literary aristocracy, he has now gained comprehensive advantages. He only needs to roll out the trains and disintegrate the grassroots power of the aristocracy. Then there will be no force that can threaten the rule of imperial power.

As for agriculture, after vigorous cultivation in Guangdong, Guangxi and Qiongzhou, it has now been promoted throughout the country. Two seasons have been harvested in the southern region. Now sweet potatoes and potatoes are no longer rare in the market, but have become an important supplementary food for the people.

Even Yang Siyi, the chief accountant of the Ming Dynasty, who used to have to spend countless efforts on agriculture and sericulture besides worrying about treasury tax revenue, now cares most about how to develop trade and increase tax revenue.

I think if we encounter natural disasters or man-made disasters again, at least we won’t have to worry about food. As for the Little Ice Age that Lao Li mentioned, I believe that the Ming Dynasty is now capable of safely surviving it!

As for the word "gong", it used to refer to craftsmen and small handicraftsmen. But now in the Ming Dynasty, it has been given a new meaning, which is industry.

This area is developing the fastest and best, and is also the foundation of the Ming Dynasty's strength.

As for businessmen, he can now abandon his previous negative views of them. After all, businessmen can boost trade and bring in huge amounts of tax revenue.

Moreover, he often thinks about problems from a businessman's perspective. Before launching any project, he will think about whether it can bring benefits, whether it will promote regional economic development, etc.

Although there are still many problems, the overall situation is thriving, which made him start to think seriously about a problem.

That is, if national production and trade are predicted and planned in advance, market demand is understood in advance, and production plans are issued to major factories, will it not be able to better promote the development of the national economy and avoid the vicious competition that Lao Li mentioned?

At the same time, production tasks were also given to each provincial capital. For example, Shaoxing produced rice wine and raw silk, and Changzhou produced silk. Perhaps this could also avoid the phenomenon of excessive siphoning in wealthy areas?

Then the key is to predict market demand. How can this be done? Well, I have to ask Lao Li.

When he had some free time, Zhu Yuanzhang began to write back to Li Han, and at the same time ordered someone to make a special set of the most complete and up-to-date "Great Ming Chronicles".

This is something that Old Li had specifically requested, so we can't just be careless and find a set in a bookstore and be done with it.

He had to use the best paper and order the best printer to print a new set. If Zhu Yuanzhang had the spare time, he would have wanted to copy a set for Li Han himself.

"Old Li, after reading your last letter, I have gained a lot of insights and benefited a lot.

To be honest, the railways have brought about many changes that we have never thought of before. For example, the arrival of railways can greatly increase the mobility of people, and the mobility of people has brought about tremendous changes in the local population structure, impacting the rule of the aristocratic forces at the grassroots level.

This alone makes me feel that everything I learned before was in vain.

In the old concept, we were worried that the more population moved, the more unstable factors would be brought about, which would eventually lead to refugees and disastrous consequences.

Therefore, before this, we ordered local governments to strictly control population movement and establish a system of road permits.

After all, the demise of the Yuan Dynasty began with countless refugees, and I was one of them. However, under your suggestion, the Ming Dynasty began to develop industry and trade, and the flow of people brought more trade and labor, which obviously completely broke my previous cognition.

We believe that the management of population mobility alone may be a new theory of national governance, which should contain more profound truths.

Of course, what opened my eyes the most was your theory of the visible hand and the invisible hand, macro-control and market rules, these two things jointly promote the integration and allocation of social resources.

We think this makes a lot of sense. In fact, the government has always been using the hand of macro-control, but the invisible hand of market rules is somewhat difficult to understand.

So based on this, I have a new idea that I need to talk to you, Lao Li.

You see, trade is determined by market demand, and market demand is affected by market laws. Since these are laws, they should be predictable.

Do you think this is possible? Is there a way to predict market rules and then estimate next year's market demand? In this way, production plans can be made according to demand and production tasks can be assigned to each factory. In this way, production resources can be effectively allocated to each factory.

In this way, we can not only allocate resources and arrange production reasonably, but also save time and improve production efficiency, don’t you think?

There is another point. According to what you said, the theory of coordinating the balanced development of various regions, similarly, based on the advantageous industries of each state, it is stipulated which products each state can only produce, and which states can provide which production resources to other states.

Just as you said in your letter, Shaoxing's raw silk is its advantageous industry, and Changzhou's weaving is even better. So Shaoxing will specifically provide raw silk to Changzhou, and Changzhou will only need to be responsible for producing silk.

In this way, can we quickly form a complementary industrial chain and avoid the phenomenon of excessive siphoning?
Old Li, do you think that what we have imagined makes sense? I am waiting for your reply.

The Dingyuan-class ironclad battleship is already under trial production. The keel has been laid and the hull has begun to be built. It should be launched for sea trials soon.

We will wait for the Ming warships to be successfully built, and then the Ming navy will be officially formed. At that time, we will first wipe out Chen Zuyi's pirate gang, and then open up new waterways and trade routes for the Ming.

By the way, I have asked someone to make a new set of "The History of the Great Ming Dynasty" for you. Once the book is printed, we will send it to you along with the letter.

There is also a statistic on the distribution of advantageous industries among the prefectures in Jiangnan. This can be regarded as your assessment of us, Old Li, and it has been attached with the letter.

Looking forward to your reply. ”

After writing the letter, Zhu Yuanzhang was quite proud of himself. Although this set of theories was just an idea and the theory was still very rough, it was definitely the result of his own thinking!
This can be considered the result of being influenced by Lao Li over the past few days.

Not long after the new edition of "The Chronicles of the Great Ming Dynasty" was printed, Yang Siyi also handed in a thick stack of industrial reports on the Jiangnan region.

After ordering someone to copy a copy as a reference for future industrial layout, Zhu Yuanzhang took these things to the Buddhist temple. When he was about to send them to Li Han, he slapped his head and almost forgot another thing.

He quickly took out his cell phone, then placed the letters and books on the Buddhist table. As the blue light flashed, he also took a picture with his cell phone, then copied the video with a USB drive, and then sent the USB drive to Li Han.

(End of this chapter)