Zhu Yuanzhang in the cellar

Chapter 32 The simple and crude way
The first page of the stack of papers in Zhu Yunfeng's hand contained the three rules.

Zhu Biao signed it, pressed his fingerprint, and stamped it with the imperial seal, which officially fulfilled the contract between the two parties.

When the jade seal was put on, there were six big characters "Treasure of the Emperor of the Great Ming Dynasty" on it.

This is one of the sixteen seals carved by Zhu Yuanzhang after he established the Ming Dynasty and failed to find the imperial seal. It is also the main seal for exercising imperial power.

Basically, all edicts issued by Zhu Yuanzhang needed to be printed with this jade seal.

As for other imperial seals, they all have their uses. For example, the "Emperor's Seal of Trust" is used to dispatch troops, the "Emperor's Seal of Travel" is used to reward ministers, the "Emperor's Seal of Relatives" is used to enthrone vassal kings, and so on.

These jade seals were kept by the eunuchs in charge of the Nei Shi Jian. When the 12 Jians were built in the 17th year of Hongwu, they were under the charge of the Shang Bao Jian. On weekdays, apart from Zhu Yuanzhang, only the crown prince Zhu Biao and Empress Ma could use them.

Of course, this kind of use was just for fun, and it was impossible to fake an imperial edict through the imperial seal. After all, Zhu Yuanzhang only gave Empress Ma and Zhu Biao huge power, and he was not dead. If he really faked the imperial edict, he would definitely be furious.

After putting the seal on the table, Zhu Biao put it aside, let out a long breath, then looked up at Zhu Yunfeng and said, "Yunfeng, the seal has been put on the table. Now you can tell me how you can make the Ming Dynasty stronger, right?"

"It's very simple."

Zhu Yunfeng put the paper away, then turned to the second page, and said with a smile: "History is actually a final conclusion. Later generations saw the pros and cons of policies from history books and made a summary. Although many of the systems of my ancestor and the second ancestor caused great trouble to the Ming Dynasty and left great hidden dangers, many policies still had some effects in the early days of the founding of the country. They were able to quickly restore production and stabilize the situation in the chaotic times that had just been pacified, resulting in the prosperous times of the Hongwu reign, the Yongle reign, and the Renxuan reign."

"It can only be said that the system at that time was not wrong in response to the situation at that time, but the passage of time led to the system becoming rigid. Some good policies at the beginning of the founding of the country turned into bad policies that harmed the Ming Dynasty in the middle and late stages of the country."

"To some extent, the demise of the Ming Dynasty cannot be entirely blamed on the first and second ancestors."

"But it is undeniable that the decline of the Ming Dynasty is closely related to the many bad policies formulated by our first and second ancestors. It is a good thing that our first ancestors started from humble beginnings, but it also doomed them to be unable to foresee the future."

"Or maybe he thought he had a long-term vision and formulated policies that would sustain the Ming Dynasty for thousands of years, but a few decades later, he was killed and his government collapsed, bringing disaster to the country and the people."

"So I plan to start from two aspects. First, help Daming establish a better system and analyze its shortcomings to make sure that it is a good system during this period. After a few decades, it will have to be reformed and adapted. I am even ready for how to adapt and the methods of adaptation."

"Secondly, we must be thankful that the space node can carry things."

As he spoke, he glanced at the list on the paper and smiled, "You can bring anything, and there are no restrictions. It's a simple mode. With my help, you can complete the Second Industrial Revolution in 20 years, enter the information age in 30 years, and plant the flag of the Ming Dynasty all over the world in 50 years!"

In the room, when Zhu Yuanzhang heard him say that the system he left behind had caused great trouble to the Ming Dynasty, he could not help but clench the pen in his hand. However, his unhappy expression only eased slightly when he heard that he would dominate the world in fifty years.

"Oh?"

Zhu Biao listened to his incomprehensible words and became interested, "Tell me more."

"food!"

Zhu Yunfeng said bluntly: "I actually want to talk about productivity, but I guess you don't understand, so I'll use something you can understand. Within two years, I want to double the grain output of Daming!"

double?
Zhu Biao's eyes widened with disbelief.

Zhu Yuanzhang, who was pretending to review memorials in the inner study but was actually listening with his ears perked up, stopped writing.

Zhu Di beside him couldn't help but asked in astonishment: "Do you know what you are talking about?"

"Second Ancestor."

Zhu Yunfeng shook his head and said, "You've been staying at my house for so long, how come you don't understand anything at all? You've also seen it these past few days. Have you ever seen anyone plowing the fields over there?"

"Forehead"

Zhu Di then recalled.

He once stood on the second-floor balcony and looked down.

Zhu Yunfeng's house is located on a relatively high ground, and one can see a large depression in front of the house at a glance.

There are terraced fields stretching for more than ten feet underground, surrounding the city in circles. At a rough glance, they cover at least thirty or forty acres.

And it's not just in front of the house, there are fields behind it as well. Each house is far apart and separated by fields.

But the strange thing is that only a small amount of the land is cultivated, and even if it is cultivated, it is only used to grow vegetables, which are full of weeds.

If it weren't for the ridges and the circles of land that clearly showed that they were fields, people would probably have thought it was wasteland rather than fields.

"Think about it, why are there so many fields around my house, but no one is cultivating them? Is it because people don't have food to eat?"

Zhu Yunfeng asked back.

Although Zhu Biao had been to his house, he had never seen that kind of situation, and his eyes unconsciously looked at Zhu Di.

Zhu Di scratched his head and said, "Could it be that all the fields on your side are inferior fields?"

He heard that the yields from fields in the mountains were not very good, especially in the deep mountains and old forests, where there were rocks underground and water sources were not guaranteed, which was far inferior to the plains or lakeside.

Zhu Yunfeng shook his head and said, "You are wrong. It's because the young people have gone out to work, leaving only the elderly at home, and the elderly don't really farm anymore."

“Old people don’t farm anymore?”

Zhu Di and Zhu Biao looked at each other, both feeling a little puzzled.

Many elderly people have rich experience in farming and have been farming all their life. Even if some of them are in poor health, how could it be possible that they collectively don’t farm?
What's the point?
Don’t they need to worry about their livelihood anymore?
Seeing the puzzled expressions on the two's faces, Zhu Yunfeng actually knew that there was a high probability that Zhu Yuanzhang in the next room was also confused at this time.

He did not blame them for not thinking this problem through, because there were many people in later generations who could not figure this problem out.

On the one hand, this is a cognitive problem, and on the other hand, it is a common sense problem.

Zhu Yuanzhang and his people had a limited understanding of modern times and had no idea how advanced modern technology had become or whether it could support such a large population.

So they were very surprised and didn't understand why the common people would rather let the land go to waste than farm it.

However, few people know that the deeper reason behind this is that due to the improvement in productivity and the efforts of scientific researchers such as Yuan Lao, my country's grain output has steadily increased every year, with a self-sufficiency rate of more than 90%, enough to feed billion people.

Under such circumstances, with low food prices and sufficient food, young people will inevitably seek ways to earn more than farming to seek a better life, such as working in a factory or a store, or studying hard to get into a good university and find a better job. With the money they earn, they can buy cheap food on the market to feed themselves, without having to work in the fields to fill their stomachs.

But such a phenomenon was unimaginable in ancient times, because only the powerful, the rich and the landlords did not need to farm, and more than 99% of the people had to work in the fields to barely make ends meet.

This is what they lack awareness of.

However, it is normal for the ancients to lack modern cognition and common sense. But even today in the 21st century, after decades of nine-year compulsory education, there are still many people who lack such cognition and common sense.

Or these people are either bad or stupid.

Because Zhu Yunfeng once saw a great person on Bihu who was certified as a deputy chief physician of public health. He said, "China's annual rice production is only about 1.4-1.5 million tons, an average of 200 kilograms per person. What does 200 kilograms per capita mean? In old China, where people starved to death, the per capita grain possession was still kilograms."

The answerer's question is actually whether my country's independent rice production can meet the needs of everyone.

However, he tried to use the insufficient per capita rice production to prove that my country's grain production is very low and cannot meet everyone's grain consumption.

These remarks made everyone in the audience laugh.

Compare the rice production with the per capita grain possession during the entire Republic of China period.

So, we Chinese can only eat rice and not wheat, meat, eggs or milk?

And the retired major general on the island could actually say that the missile had a 70% interception success rate, and the three missiles combined could bring the interception rate to 210%.

I don’t know how these two people became deputy chief physician and major general.

Therefore, sometimes, some things that the public thinks are common sense may not be understood by other people, or they may simply do something bad on purpose.

It can only be said that the forest is big and there are all kinds of birds.

Fortunately, the three of Zhu's father and son were not the mentally retarded people of later generations. Zhu Biao quickly realized the problem and said, "You said that all the young people went out to work. This so-called work should not be working for the landowner."

"of course not."

Zhu Yunfeng shook his head.

Zhu Biao thought for a moment and said, "Since they are not working for the landowners, it means they have other ways to make a living. And since a large number of young people do not need to farm, it means that you have enough food to allow those young people to do other work and not starve to death."

"That's right! Now you understand."

Zhu Yunfeng looked at them and smiled, "Although our country has always kept the red line for cultivated land, in fact, in many places only middle-aged and elderly people still retain the tradition of farming. Most of them are in the northern plains. In the southern mountainous areas, due to the difficulty of farming and low yields, many middle-aged and elderly people have even given up farming. In our village, middle-aged and elderly people basically don't grow crops anymore."

"The top grain-producing areas in my country are all large plains, such as Heilongjiang, Henan, Shandong, Anhui, Jilin, Inner Mongolia and Hebei."

"The Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, once the land of plenty, have been relegated to the back of the queue. Why did this happen?"

"Because today's world has developed beyond your imagination. People can already go to the moon, and food production has also reached a level you can't even imagine."

"I don't know how much grain was produced per acre in the Ming Dynasty, but during the Eastern Han and Three Kingdoms period, even in the north, even if millet and wheat were cultivated alternately, the annual output was only about three dan, and one jin at that time was very different from one jin today."

"According to the data I have found, in the Han Dynasty, the annual output of one mu of land was equivalent to 257 kilograms in modern times, and if it could reach 400 kilograms, it was considered good land.

"I looked up the weight of a jin in the Ming Dynasty and it's equivalent to 596.8 grams in modern times, which is about 1.2 jin in modern times. In modern times, ordinary rice, wheat, and corn can basically produce more than 1000 jin per mu per year, and hybrid rice can produce 1200 jin per mu in a quarter. In Hunan, we can have two crops, and one mu can produce 2400 jin per year. In tropical areas like Hainan, three crops can produce nearly 4000 jin per mu."

"my country can produce about 1.4 trillion jin of grain every year, and has 18 billion mu of arable land."

He looked into Zhu Biao's eyes, smiled and said, "So how much grain is produced per acre in Ming Dynasty, how much grain is produced per year, and how many acres of arable land are there in the whole country?"

Zhu Biao showed a stunned expression on his face, and said hesitantly: "There should be 2 to 3 million mu of farmland, but the grain yield per mu is not certain. Jiangsu and Zhejiang have always been a land of fish and rice. The annual yield of an ordinary mu of farmland is only 4 to 6 dan, and the annual yield of good farmland is between to dan. Therefore, I can't tell the total annual grain output."

"Well, let's do a simple calculation. The data I looked up before said that one stone in the Ming Dynasty was 150 kilograms. So if we calculate it this way, one stone in the Ming Dynasty is about 180 kilograms in modern times."

Zhu Yunfeng took out a pen from his pocket, did a simple calculation on the blank page on the back of the printed paper, and said, "That is to say, one acre of ordinary paddy field in the Jiangzhe area of ​​Daming Dynasty can produce between 360 and 540 kilograms of grain a year."

"Seven hundred or eight hundred million mu is just an overestimation for you. If we take eight hundred million mu, the annual grain output per mu is also overestimated, let's say 540 catties. Then we can know that the annual grain output of the Ming Dynasty is about 4320 billion catties."

"So we can know that the Ming Dynasty produced 4320 billion catties of grain with 18 million mu of land. In modern times, 1.4 billion mu of land produces 777 trillion catties of grain, which means that the average grain production per mu in modern times is catties. How do you see the difference?"

After he finished speaking, he put down the pen, raised his head and looked at Zhu Biao with a smile.

Zhu Yunfeng was of course aware that the calculation was definitely not done in this way, because in many places in the north during the Ming Dynasty, crops were harvested only once, and the majority of the land was of inferior quality, while medium-quality and superior quality land accounted for a smaller number. The average yield per mu certainly could not have reached 540 kilograms.

Although my country claims 18 billion mu of fields, in fact many of them are abandoned. For example, Jiangsu and Zhejiang have been major grain-producing areas since the Song Dynasty. Suzhou in Jiangsu and Huzhou in Zhejiang are known for the saying "When Suzhou and Huzhou are prosperous, the world is well-fed."

But today, Jiangsu's grain production ranks only ninth in the country, with an annual output of just over 3000 million tons. Zhejiang ranks even lower, at 23rd, with an annual output of just over 600 million tons.

So if we really calculate it carefully, the difference is definitely not the difference between an average yield of 540 kilograms per mu and an average yield of 777 kilograms per mu, but it is very likely the difference between an average yield of more than 300 kilograms per mu and more than 1000 kilograms per mu.

But even so, the disparity is obvious.

Although there may not seem to be much difference between 540 kilograms and 777 kilograms per acre, once the base number is enlarged, the annual yield increase is one third.

How much land would have to be reclaimed in ancient times to achieve this?

Therefore, after hearing Zhu Yunfeng asking about the difference, Zhu Biao's expression slightly changed and he said, "Of course, there is a huge difference."

"good."

Zhu Yunfeng smiled and pointed at the coffee table and said, "This is the problem. If all the fields in Daming reach our current per-acre yield, can we double the grain production?"

After asking this question, the room was silent except for the heavy breathing of three people.

In fact, Zhu Yunfeng knew that the actual situation might be very different from what he said. For example, with the technological level of the Ming Dynasty, it was impossible to produce fertilizers industrially.

But many times, it is important to find angel investors and make a PPT to draw a pie in the sky, and now is the time to draw the pie in the sky.

(End of this chapter)