Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 196 Zhu Yunxun’s methods!

The wind blew gently.

Because of the shade of the trees, the surface of the pond is not heated by the scorching sun.

The wind that blew over brought a hint of coolness.

Very comfortable.

Zhu Yunhuan glanced at the two people in front of him, and countless thoughts swirled in his mind.

Is there someone secretly organizing and colluding behind these people?

But soon, Zhu Yunhuan shook his head.

If this is true, it is impossible that Yao Guangxiao's Intelligence Department did not obtain any intelligence.

Even local officials should report to the court.

Although most local officials are dissatisfied with the Tax Commissioner, there are always exceptions.

There are still a very small number of local officials who support the Commissioner of Taxation.

However, it is not surprising that the wealthy and businessmen would think of using this tactic even though there was no organization.

It turned out that they had all seen examples of the depreciation of the old version of Ming Dynasty treasure notes.

It's also easy to associate it with.

The Ming Dynasty was different from later societies.

The society of later times is a society of overproduction.

As long as there is demand, there is no need to worry about production issues.

But the current Ming Dynasty is still far away from such an era.

When production supply is insufficient, business logic and financial logic will be different.

If those people were organized and connected, it would be easier to deal with them.

As long as we raise the butcher knife and arrest and kill all the organizers and colluders, the problem will be solved.

With the state machinery in your hands, are you still afraid that you can’t deal with a few unscrupulous businessmen?

However, if it is unorganized, the situation is different.

Because there will be a large number of followers, and even many ordinary people will join in because of concerns about shortages.

If violence is used at this time, it will only cause people to be uneasy and trigger greater panic, which will become uncontrollable.

In later societies, certain events would trigger a "salt-grabbing" craze. In the Ming Dynasty at this time, the common people were more easily instigated.

But later societies had sufficient material supplies to deal with the "salt rush".

The current Ming Dynasty does not have that.

Because of the establishment of banks, there was too much money in circulation. Even if only a small number of people rushed to buy and hoard supplies, the entire Ming Dynasty would fall into a financial crisis of supply shortages.

The financial system that was originally established to help the Ming Dynasty develop will become a knife that cuts down the Ming Dynasty itself.

As his thoughts raced, Zhu Yunhuan already had some plans in mind, but he asked Yang Shiqi and Xia Yuanji, "What countermeasures do you two have?"

Yang Shiqi looked at Xia Yuanji with a smile.

Xia Yuanji cupped his hands and said, "I think this matter can be addressed from three aspects."

"First, the court should immediately stockpile supplies. Second, investigate which merchants are hoarding goods. Third, increase the construction of water conservancy projects and ore mining to ensure supply."

He paused, then began to explain the specific plan.

"After the army is restructured and disbanded, the grain and cloth previously stored in the various garrisons must be taken over and warehouses built to store them, and they must not be allowed to be sold freely."

"Otherwise, if all those materials are bought by big households, things will be troublesome."

Zhu Yunhuan's brows twitched.

He was somewhat negligent in this regard.

Many of the plans previously envisioned were monetized and mainly based on giving money.

As for the original materials, they are allowed to be pushed into the market.

The main reason is that there are still some thoughts of later generations in his mind, and using money to solve the problem is the most convenient and quickest.

But they forget that the Ming Dynasty was an era of material shortage.

To put it bluntly, even if you have money you may not be able to buy things.

The current stability is purely due to the regulatory role played by the national treasury.

Those wealthy families, gentry, and businessmen will not spontaneously stabilize the market.

On the contrary, even if the tax commissioner had nothing to do with it, they would still hoard goods, create artificial shortages and drive up prices in order to make a profit.

Therefore, important materials must be in the hands of the state, rather than being hoarded at will by the gentry, merchants, and wealthy families.

However, is it too late to change now?

"In addition, the court needs to allocate money to build warehouses in various places and store a large amount of supplies to prevent unexpected events."

"In two months, it will be the harvest season."

"In recent years, your majesty has encouraged reclamation, and the Ming Dynasty has reclaimed a lot of wasteland."

"Last winter, the Minister of Works Yan Zhen requested an order to reinforce the Yangtze River dike. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince approved it and allocated two million taels of silver."

"This year, initial results have been achieved, with no dike breaches or flooding of farmlands along the Yangtze River."

"Plus, there is a lot of arable land in Daming now, so there is no shortage of food."

Zhu Yunxi nodded slightly.

This is a benefit that every dynasty has at the beginning.

After all, so many people died in the wars at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, leaving countless lands vacant.

The population has decreased, but the land has not decreased, so of course there is enough food.

This favorable factor is also the basic guarantee for him to carry out various reforms.

If the reform happened in the middle or late period of the dynasty when there were too many people and too little land, and there was far from enough food, the difficulty of the reform would instantly increase tenfold.

If we don’t solve the problem of food, many things cannot be done.

"The court must repair all the grain storage warehouses before the autumn harvest."

"So that we won't be caught off guard during the autumn harvest."

"As long as the warehouses are filled up, at least the food supply will be stable."

Zhu Yunhuan asked in return: "The court cannot levy additional taxes. If those evil gentry and profiteers buy grain at a higher price during the autumn harvest, how will the court respond?"

Xia Yuanji was stunned for a moment and said, "Da Ming Bank has sufficient money..."

He suddenly stopped.

Yes, of course Ming Bank has money.

If we were to compete on who could offer a higher price, the evil gentry and unscrupulous businessmen would certainly not be able to beat the Ming Bank.

But the problem was that the court's goal was to stabilize grain prices, not to compete with evil gentry and profiteers to see who could hoard more grain.

If they raise the price to grab the food, the price of food will also go up, which goes against the original intention of stabilizing the price of food and has a counterproductive effect. It seems that my thinking is still a little inconsiderate.

"Please continue talking about other measures." Zhu Yunhuan said after taking a sip of tea.

Xia Yuanji's face turned slightly red and he looked a little embarrassed.

"Order the government offices to investigate who are the people hoarding goods and how much supplies and food they have bought."

"When necessary, arrest people with lightning speed and confiscate all the food and supplies they have stored."

“Although this may have some hidden dangers, it can solve the current predicament.”

"The third measure is a long-term solution."

"Now that His Royal Highness is building national highways on a large scale, I think we should also increase the construction of water conservancy projects, strengthen embankments, and build more ponds to prevent floods and droughts."

“For other materials, we need to increase the excavation.”

"Encourage the people to grow mulberry trees and weave cloth, grow more cotton, and weave more cloth."

Zhu Yunxi nodded slightly.

In fact, since Zhu Yuanzhang became emperor, he has been vigorously promoting cotton planting.

This measure has far-reaching consequences.

Nowadays, most people wear cotton clothes.

Old Zhu made great contributions to this matter.

After all, most ordinary people are very conservative in their thinking.

Follow the old ways.

The land will not be easily converted to grow other crops.

If it weren't for the strong promotion by the imperial court, the popularization of cotton clothing would have been delayed by at least one or two hundred years.

The widespread cultivation of cotton led to the popularization of looms, the emergence of weavers, and the birth of the seeds of capitalism, which is another story.

There is no need to worry about the development of mineral resources.

The Ming Manufacturing Bureau has sent many people to various places to look for minerals.

Feudal society always had the problem of insufficient mineral resources. The production volume was obviously not much, but the mineral resources were even less.

The reason is that the imperial court never sent a professional team to search for it. It was only after the common people discovered it and reported it to the government that they took over the development.

In most cases, the common people had discovered it long ago, but they did not take it seriously and no one went to dig, so the government was completely unaware of it.

After the Age of Discovery began, mineral resources could be imported from overseas.

But now that we are just starting out, we must still mine our own minerals.

When Xia Yuanji finished speaking, Zhu Yunxun smiled and said, "What you said makes sense. We need to collect the military's supplies, purchase and store more food, and build water conservancy projects and warehouses."

"But I have a different opinion on the specific measures."

"First, collecting grain from the people cannot wait until after the autumn harvest, but must be done immediately."

Xia Yuanji said quickly: "Now is the time of youth, and the people don't have much food. If the court continues to buy it at a high price, it will cause disaster immediately."

Zhu Yunhuan smiled faintly. "What I mean is that we should send people to sign a grain purchase agreement with the grain-growing people first, so as to get ahead of others and lock in the grain. When the autumn harvest comes, we can directly store the grain in the warehouse without having to compete with those bad gentry and merchants for grain by bidding against each other."

Xia Yuanji's eyes suddenly widened.

Normally, food prices fall during the autumn harvest season every year.

The people who grow grain are also aware of this and will not have too high expectations for grain prices during the autumn harvest.

If someone could guarantee that the price of grain during the autumn harvest would remain the same as it is now, the people would surely rush to sign contracts to sell grain.

It was signed in black and white, and when the autumn harvest came, those merchants and wealthy people couldn't buy it even if they wanted to.

This can also help stabilize food prices.

Cheap grain prices hurt farmers, expensive rice prices hurt the people.

Only by keeping food prices stable can we achieve a situation where everyone is happy.

Before this, it was difficult to stabilize food prices.

It is often the grain harvest season when grain prices are the lowest.

When the season of scarcity comes, food prices will rise again.

Zhu Yunhuan ordered the national treasury granaries to sell grain at a fair price and forcibly locked the grain price, which reversed the situation.

But it remains very difficult to continue to maintain stable food prices.

It is indeed a good idea to sign an agreement in advance before the autumn harvest, agreeing to purchase grain at a fair price after the harvest.

"Your Highness the Crown Prince's strategy is extremely brilliant, and I admire it." Xia Yuanji exclaimed.

Zhu Yunhuan smiled slightly.

This kind of business practice was very common in later generations.

But in the current Ming Dynasty, business is not yet developed, so few people use it.

Those evil gentry and profiteers were waiting to buy grain at a low price during the autumn harvest season, and then sell it at a high price when there was a shortage of grain. Naturally, they would not do such a thing.

"Secondly, the investigation into who is hoarding goods must be conducted in secret, and the government cannot conduct it publicly with great fanfare. This will only cause panic among the people and lead to even larger-scale panic buying."

"Let the Investigation Department handle this matter, investigate it thoroughly and make a record."

"When it really becomes a last resort, we will directly confiscate those large hoarders."

"But this is a last resort. It should not be used lightly unless there is no other way out."

"I have a better way. It doesn't require the use of knives or guns, but it can also achieve excellent results."

Yang Shiqi and Xia Yuanji looked at each other, both with surprise on their faces.

He turned to look at Zhu Yunhuan to hear what he had to say.

“Building warehouses to store grain and purchase various materials during the autumn harvest can certainly prevent greater unrest, but it is difficult to solve the current urgent needs.”

"The food and supplies for the garrison troops are already being sold. If we stop now, people will be confused. If someone takes the opportunity to spread rumors, it will cause panic among the people, which is not advisable."

"The only solution now is to mobilize all the supplies we have and increase our efforts to sell them off, so that we can stabilize the market."

Upon hearing this, Xia Yuanji became anxious and said, "Your Highness, we should enforce strict control right now. It would be best to impose purchase restrictions, with each person only allowed to buy a certain amount per day, to discourage hoarding. If we continue to sell off, once the court's inventory of supplies runs out, things will be difficult to handle."

Zhu Yunxun smiled and said, "Don't worry. I know these people will take the opportunity to stockpile goods."

"Not only that, they will not be satisfied with just using the capital they have, but will borrow from banks."

Yang Shiqi's eyes lit up, and he said, "As long as the Ming Bank doesn't lend to them..."

"No!" Zhu Yunhuan interrupted him: "Da Ming Bank should lend them more money. The more loans the better."

Yang Shiqi and Xia Yuanji were both very puzzled.

Zhu Yunxun explained with a smile: "After they used the money borrowed from the bank to buy a large amount of food and supplies, the bank immediately stopped lending and withdrew the loan."

"I will make them spit it out again, losing everything they have invested and ruining their entire family!"

……

(End of this chapter)