Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 1007 Everything is ready
When summing up at the end of the year, the Ming Dynasty has basically determined the plan for the coming year, which is to practice internal strength.

If the war against the Kingdom of Jin succeeds this time, the Ming Dynasty will cover thousands of miles at once, and there must be a period of digestion.

Wang Yan tried his best to develop the sea trade and expand the market, but he also clearly realized that the sea trade is only open source, and the foundation is still in the country. He will continue to encourage business and expand the domestic market.

The territory controlled by the Ming Dynasty has a current population of nearly 5000 million. If it can be fully utilized, the benefits that can be created are very considerable.

However, there is also a serious problem in encouraging business and industry. In ancient China, there were no merchants in the strict sense. Successful merchants tried hard to become gentry.

Now, following Wang Yan's advocacy of the idea that all peoples are the foundation these years, it has indeed influenced many people, resulting in a large number of businessmen in the Ming Dynasty, and many gentry also transferred their assets to business at the expense of land benefits, but these people In the gentry system of the entire Ming Dynasty, there were only a few.

With the development of commerce, a class of merchants and a class of enlightened landlords and gentry emerged in the Ming Dynasty, and they gradually separated from the original gentry class.

During the nearly 300 years of the Ming Dynasty, the gentry class was powerful. They were originally the rulers of the local area and the most prestigious people. However, the influence of the rising merchant class and the enlightened gentry split from the traditional gentry is increasing day by day.

One has not moved in place, and the other has developed and grown, and the one that has remained in place will fall behind.

The rise of the new gentry naturally affected the status of these old gentry, and gradually made them lose their local voice, so they felt very dissatisfied.

Wang Yan was terrified of this power in his heart, and he was born in this class.

Today's social changes have caused violent turmoil in the hearts of the people. Blindly expanding externally without paying attention to internal affairs will make it impossible to resolve conflicts. Therefore, Wang Yan will strengthen the management of internal affairs.

Externally, revising the New Treaty with Japan and adopting a hostile attitude towards Spain is to expand the market. Internally, continuing to encourage industry and commerce is to further disintegrate and divide the conservative gentry, making them invest in new industries, so as to ease conflicts and bring More people assimilated.

There are policies inside and markets outside. Wang Yan believes that in just a few years, the whole society will complete a preliminary transformation and gradually end the internal turmoil.

However, these policies of Wang Yan are mainly aimed at Huguang, Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Fujian, Nanzhi, and Zhejiang. For Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan in the southwest, the imperial court has given considerable autonomy.

Because in these places, it is too difficult to enter, and there is a war, the mountains are high and the roads are far away, and it is difficult to even contact them.If the imperial court followed the examples of other provinces and passed everything through the central government, it would be too late.

Three years of rule, at the end of January, Luzhou, Sichuan.

He Tengjiao has been in a good mood during this period of time. He now holds the power of the Southwest. Although he does not have the title of Southwest King, he already has the strength of Southwest King.

Following Chu Wangxin's instruction and the appointment of the cabinet, he was made the governor of the three provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, not only gave him the right to act cheaply, but also allocated 200 million taels of money to make him rich all at once.

However, Wang Yan also made it clear that starting from the third year of co-government, the imperial court will focus on filling the national treasury, and the support for the southwest will be reduced. Therefore, the imperial court hopes that He Tengjiao can achieve self-sufficiency after seizing Sichuan.

Especially for the item of grain, it was too difficult to transport grain into Sichuan in the Ming Dynasty. The people who participated in the transport had to eat more than half of the grain transported, and the loss was too great. Therefore, the court hoped that Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan could achieve food self-sufficiency.

In addition to food supply, the economy of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan must also recover as soon as possible, and try to avoid asking the court for money.

In this way, he had to prepare for the war and pay attention to food and the economy, so He Tengjiao became busy. Although the affairs were complicated, he enjoyed the pleasure of being in power.

The only thing that displeased him was that the inspectors of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces arranged by the imperial court were not members of the Chu Party, but fortunately they were not members of Tang Lu, but the remnants of Donglin led by Qian Qianyi. The imperial court obviously intended to monitor them. , for fear that he would abuse his power.

After defeating Hauge, the Ming army recovered Neijiang, Zizhong, Ziyang and other places one after another, and the army had already entered the territory of Chengdu.

The Ming army recovered not only cities, but also tracts of arable land where crops could be grown.

Since last year, the Ming Dynasty has promoted sweet potatoes in Guizhou, Guangxi and other places, and has achieved some results. Now that they have acquired tens of thousands of hectares of land, it is possible to solve the food problem in the southwest.

Since Hauge broke the contract and triggered the war in Sichuan, Sichuan has been fighting for more than a year, and the population has suffered a large loss. He Tengjiao not only let the people in the recovery area plant, but also sent tens of thousands of Western troops captured in Luzhou to Neijiang. , Ziyang and other places to plant land, and even recruited chieftains from the mountains to come down the mountain to plant.

If these places can have a bumper harvest this year, then He Tengjiao can complete the first task entrusted to him by the court, and barely achieve self-sufficiency in food in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan.

In order to protect these farmlands, He Tengjiao was preparing for the battle while dispatching troops to prevent the Jin army from destroying them.

After the food problem is resolved, we will focus on restoring the economy in the Southwest. The initial development of mineral resources in Guizhou has already seen returns, but this is far from enough.

After the Ming army took control of Yunnan and southern Sichuan, they regained contact with Duogandusi and Uzangdusi.

The Ming Dynasty shifted its focus to the southwest. The main reason was that it hoped to obtain war horse resources from the west. He Tengjiao soon thought of the "tea-horse trade".

For the Central Plains dynasty, tea was just an ordinary daily necessities, but for the northern peoples and the people in the snow region, it was an extremely important strategic material, because they would get sick if they didn't drink tea, so tea was very important to them.

The Central Plains Dynasty used this thing to trade with these peoples, and exchanged tea for war horses. This is the "tea-horse trade".

There is tea in Yunnan, and horses in snowy areas. He Tengjiao sent Zhang Tongchang into Duogan and Uszang to request the restoration of the "tea-horse mutual market", set up a tea and horse department for trade, and restore the tradition of giving horses as gifts in snowy areas.

If this matter is completed, He Tengjiao will have an additional source of income, which will be of great benefit to the economy of the Southwest.

Now, He Tengjiao has a solution in terms of food and money. As for soldiers and horses, he is even more worried. In addition to the 3 people seconded from Guangxi Wang Jincai, they may have to be returned to Guangdong and Guangxi. He has Ma Jinzhong, Wang Guangtai, and Wang Deren in his hands. , Chen Youlong, and Li Dingguo and other ministries have more than 10 troops, and if they are full, they will reach 15. It can be said that the troops are full.

At this time, He Tengjiao can say that if you want money, you have money, you need food, you have food, you need soldiers, you need soldiers. All you need is news that Huguang is ready to do something.

(End of this chapter)