"Everyone, that's it for last year's income and expenditure report. The Ministry of Revenue is going to spend another month or so sorting out various bills and procedures, and is ready to be inspected by the Metropolitan Procuratorate and colleagues from other ministries at any time."

After seeing everyone at the meeting nodding, Zhu Youdong said: "Well, let's stop talking about the income and expenditure for now. Next, let's talk about this year's work plan. According to the proposals submitted by various ministries in advance, there is a major event to be started this year.

Ministry of Revenue, please talk about the resettlement of water workers first."

"According to the order." Xu Honggang, who had just sat down, stood up again: "Everyone, the Ministry of Household Affairs plans to start this year and prepare to spend three to five years to divert at least 90% of the existing water workers and their families."

"Hiss~" The venue, which had been quiet for a while, started to become noisy again.

The overall transportation situation in the Chinese Empire in the Middle Ages was poor, especially land roads. Most of the so-called official roads were just rammed earth roads with an average width of less than three meters. Moreover, the quality of these rammed earth roads was far inferior to that of the Qin Dynasty.

The straights are comparable: dusty weather on sunny days and muddy legs on rainy days are the norm.

In addition, in ancient times, there were no tunnels in the mountains and few bridges in the water. Therefore, before the Republic of China, China's transportation was relatively fast and safe through waterways, and the cargo capacity of ships was much higher than that of two-wheeled carriages.

.

In this way, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, which connects the north and south of the economically developed areas in the eastern part of the Chinese Empire, is particularly important. Since its opening in the Sui Dynasty, as the southern economy overtook the north, the imperial court became increasingly dependent on this economic artery.

powerful.

Specifically speaking of the Ming Dynasty, starting from the time when Zhu Di moved the capital to Beijing, a large amount of grain and taxes had to be transported to the north through the Grand Canal every year. And private economic exchanges were mainly realized through the Grand Canal.

Transportation through the Grand Canal is called water transportation. And the laborers, craftsmen, boatmen, etc. who rely on water transportation are all called water transportation.

"Everyone, since the founding of the People's Republic of China in Beijing, water transport has flourished. More and more people are relying on water transport for survival. Through the yellow list cleaning, the Ministry of Household Affairs currently knows that there are about 170,000 boatmen on both sides of the canal, with large and small businesses

There are more than 19,000 ships. There are more than 130,000 river workers responsible for embankment maintenance and weir dredging. There are more than 95,000 workers responsible for loading and unloading goods along the way. These people control 300 people along the river.

There are many large and small private warehouses. In addition, there are all kinds of helpers, and there are more than 50,000 people in total. The above 44 or 5 people, together with their families, are about 2.3 million people. They all rely on

Eat along this canal.”

Xu Honggang reported the data, and many officials present were feeling nervous.

Again, officials who can sit at the State Council have to be exposed to all aspects of the country through such high-end meetings every ten days, and they all have a certain understanding of the overall situation of the Ming Dynasty at this time.

There are economic reasons for the scale of water transportation, but more importantly, there are historical reasons: after Yongle, the Ming Dynasty’s foreign policy became more and more closed, maritime trade shrank, and navigation technology regressed, making communication between the north and the south extremely dependent on water transportation. By the Jiajing period, the entire

The sea was occupied by the Ming Dynasty's own "maritime merchants" and Japanese pirates, and water transportation became an irreplaceable choice. So much so that the scale of water transportation became larger and larger, which not only made the economy on both sides of the canal abnormally prosperous, but also relied on this canal.

There are more and more people eating.

There are many people from all over the world, from all walks of life. In order not to be bullied and to gain greater benefits, they naturally form gangs. Then these gangs colluded deeply with the Lianghuai salt merchants to form a huge interest group.

This group is tightly attached to the Grand Canal and survives by exploiting many merchants on this economic artery: their ships must be used to transport goods, and their warehouses and workers must be used for unloading and loading goods in the middle. Even worse things are

, and also colluded with local officials to block canals in some special areas and force passing merchants to pay dredging fees.

It can be said that by the Wanli and Tianqi years, the efficiency of the Grand Canal had become very low, and the security problems along the river were also extremely serious. In addition to the Lianghuai salt merchants, merchants from all walks of life had long complained. Even the officials of the Ming Dynasty,

He was also extremely dissatisfied with the slowness of water transportation.

Now, Japan has completely surrendered, Korea has become a blessed country, and the Nanyang region has become the Central and South Governor's Palace of the Ming Dynasty. It can be said that the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty are now calm and extremely safe. From a purely economic and efficiency perspective

Let’s look at it. It is very feasible to completely transform water transportation into sea transportation - the shipbuilding technology of the Ming Dynasty not only revived at this time, but also far exceeded that of the Chengzu period. In sea transportation, the cargo capacity of a single ship is five to ten times that of water transportation, and the time on the road

It can be shortened from two or three months to more than ten days. Many Ming officials have written to the court one after another, requesting that water transportation be changed to sea transportation.

However, this is a major event involving the livelihood of more than two million water workers and their families. Can it be changed at any time? Not to mention that behind the water workers, in addition to the salt merchants in Lianghuai and Huaihe, there are also thousands of people on both sides of the canal.

The interests of tens of thousands of ordinary people: Didn’t you see, in terms of history, once the Beijing-Kowloon Railway was completed, would the economy on both sides of the canal immediately come to a standstill?

"Everyone, after all, a canal is just a river with a limited carrying capacity. With the liberalization of steam engine technology, exchanges of materials from various places have become more and more frequent. One canal can no longer meet the needs of material flow between various provinces in the country. Therefore, sea transportation must be liberalized

.However, once maritime transport is liberalized, water transport will decline sharply. Therefore, we must take precautions and first think of a good place for these two million water transport workers.

After deductions from the Ministry of Household Affairs, we estimate that after the complete liberalization of maritime transport, the volume of water transport will drop by 60% in the short term. If the road from Jinan to Nanjing is built in two or three years, the transport volume will drop by another 20%. If it is 50% to

Within ten years, the railway between Beijing and Beijing will be built, and the water transport volume will be reduced to one out of ten. Therefore, in the short term, the Ministry of Household Affairs plans to relocate one million water workers and their families to other places. In the next five to ten years, more and more water transport will be carried out.

Migrate a million.”

After talking about the problem of water workers, Xu Honggang changed the subject: "Everyone, in addition to the resettlement of water workers, the resettlement of military households is also imminent. At present, our Ming Dynasty has more than 800,000 old-style soldiers, together with their families, a total of 300

One hundred thousand. Everyone, because the military rolls have not yet been re-counted and reconstructed, the Ministry of Revenue estimates that after Cao Shuai returns from the Northern Expedition and the military rolls are re-counted, the actual number of people will be around four million."

As soon as these words came out, Wang Xiangqian, the Secretary of the Ministry of War, raised his eyebrows, but in the end he did not say anything - the officers in various military stations are actually similar to the civil servants, and they do not hide a large number of people. What Old Xu just said was very polite, according to

From what he had learned, if he really followed the seriousness of the emperor's efforts in rebuilding the civil register a few years ago, he was afraid that the population of the military register would expand to more than five million.

"After the Northern Expedition, in accordance with the emperor's decree, the imperial court will reduce the number of garrison troops in the important town of Jiubian in the north. The plan is to reduce the number of combat troops from 500,000 to 100,000. Currently, there are 190 military households on the books of the important town of Jiubian.

Thousands of soldiers have been reduced by 80%, and military households will also be reduced by 80%. This will involve the migration of at least 1.5 million people. Adding the laborers and their families, that is to say, starting from this year, within five years, households will

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development plans to relocate more than 2.5 million people. This is the first year, and the Ministry of Household Affairs’ plan is to complete the relocation of at least 300,000 people."

There is no need to emphasize such a matter. It is of course a top priority for the country.

Needless to say, the military households in the important town of Jiubian have been at loggerheads with the Mongols all year round. Even if they are not soldiers, the old, weak, women and children here are quite capable of fighting. And what about the Huaihe and Huaihe regions? Historically, the north and south were divided, and although the southern government generally had its capital

South of the Yangtze River. However, in terms of national defense, we basically rely on the military resources from the Huaihe and Huaihe regions to confront the north.

Therefore, the areas affected this time are all areas with strong folk customs and strong fighting capacity. If this accidentally triggers a large-scale civil uprising, the entire country will be shaken.

"My lords." Just when all the ministers were thinking with heavy hearts, Zhu Youdong spoke: "The migration of the people from Jiubian and Huaihe is imperative. I won't go into details about the big principles. According to what I and all the cabinet elders

As well as the results of discussions between the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Industry. In the third year of the Apocalypse, we first tried to relocate 300,000 people. During these 300,000 miles, we had to absorb 50,000 to 60,000 people in terms of sea transportation. Engineering teams from various places, as well as the construction of roads,

The cement plants, steel mills, etc. supporting the railway will absorb 50,000 to 60,000 yuan. The rest is planned to be sent to Taiwan and the five states in Central and South China. This is a long-term and arduous project. It also involves the long-term peace and stability of the Ming Dynasty.

, and even the newly incorporated territories can be quickly Chineseized, and then become a major project for the stable and inherent territory of our Ming Dynasty. All ministers and ministries must attach great importance to it, unite sincerely, and do it well at all costs."
Chapter completed!