Chapter seven hundred and eighty fourth bet everything Zhu Biao
It has been two years since Lao Zhu went north and Zhu Biao was in charge of the country. Without his father's suppression, Zhu Biao became more and more confident, and his magnanimity as a superior person became stronger day by day.
To rule the world and control this huge country requires such magnanimity.
But I have to admit that Zhu Biao's enthusiasm is still a bit low. This country is too big and complicated.
Because no matter how hard Zhu Biao worked, he found that famine, hunger, and even refugees continued to appear... Although the scale was small, he could not turn a blind eye.
The most ironic thing is that the year before last, there was a famine in Haozhou and other places. By the way, Haozhou at this moment has been renamed Fengyang. As the place of Longxing in the Ming Dynasty, there was actually widespread starvation.
Fortunately, a batch of food was urgently allocated, so no major incident occurred, but it also scared Zhu Biao into a cold sweat. If there really was a civil uprising in Fengyang, Zhu Yuanzhang would not have died yet, and a new Zhu Yuanzhang would emerge, the emperor and minister of the Ming Dynasty.
The fun is great.
Zhu Biao had to cheer up and study carefully, where is the problem?
Is he really incompetent, or is there something wrong with the local officials?
Or maybe God is against me?
After almost a year of investigation, we found out.
Zhu Biao reluctantly admitted that perhaps this was the normal state of agricultural society, with three years of drought and three years of floods, constant famines, and people's livelihood difficult.
When Zhu Yuanzhang first started his army, due to the war, the population fled and the land was abandoned. At this time, large-scale land equalization was implemented, and each household could get a lot of acres. Moreover, the people who had just obtained the land also wanted to start a family and start a business, so they built
There are many houses and many people getting married.
As a result, a large amount of surplus grain was brought to the market.
Coupled with the construction of water conservancy projects, which greatly increased production, everything prospered for a period of time.
Taking Huaixi and other places as an example, it has been more than twenty years since they were brought under the rule of Lao Zhu.
The earliest child born is now a father.
The skyrocketing population quickly carved up all the excess land.
The half-grown boy will eat me to death.
There are at least three or five children in a family, and no matter how much food is left, there is not enough food.
In recent years, floods, droughts, and locust plagues have occurred one after another... The accumulation of ordinary people has been quickly drained. If there is no relief, there will be refugees.
In fact, this has been the norm throughout the ages. Basically, after 30 to 50 years since the founding of the country, or even less, a lot of problems will arise... If you try to work hard, you can barely survive a hundred years.
By the time one hundred, fourteen or fifty years later, there were already holes all over the place, then a strong man would descend from heaven and implement drastic measures, which would extend his life for a while.
When the time comes when you can’t even make reforms, then you can only wait for death.
The Ming Dynasty did not even finish the first stage. After all, there was still extra land in Lingnan, Huguang, Bashu, and even the Central Plains, which could still promote immigration.
Conservative estimates suggest that it will take another 20 to 30 years before a real large-scale crisis breaks out...
But Zhu Biao asked himself, twenty or thirty years is not that long!
I can definitely live to see that day!
And if we don’t start to solve it now, there will be nothing we can do when the day comes.
Almost instantly, Zhu Biao realized that only by developing industry and commerce could the problem be solved.
I have to say that Mr. Zhang is really powerful. Just a few years after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Ximeng was talking about this matter and had already made arrangements. Most people did not understand at that time. Zhang Ximeng reluctantly moved forward despite almost all pressure.
Implement.
Now Zhu Biao realized later and understood how powerful Mr.
But there is still one question left, what should we do?
Specifically, how to use the power of industry and commerce to break the current deadlock... Zhu Biao had to summon his ministers to discuss this matter. The important ministers of the court, headed by Sun Yan, gathered together.
Discussions about this have been going on for a long time, and now everyone has an idea of what to do. In fact, they are not at all clueless.
"Your Highness, in the final analysis, we still need to release people from the land... we need to change the original strategy and let the entire Ming Dynasty move."
Just as Sun Yan finished speaking, Wang Guangyang said: "Prime Minister Sun, what we have always done is to calm down the people, to solve the problem of refugees, and to allow the people to live and work in peace and contentment and have enough to eat. Suddenly forcing the people to move, this
It’s not a small matter!”
Sun Yan nodded in agreement, "That's true. Fortunately, Grand Master Zhang made arrangements early, and now we have a chance. I mean, we have to break down the fortresses one by one and reshape the pattern of the Ming Dynasty to have a chance!"
What is Sun Yan talking about?
It’s not complicated to say. Take food as an example. Is the Ming Dynasty really short of food now?
Obviously this is not the case. There are grain merchants, large and small, all over the country. They have accumulated a considerable amount of grain. When the grain harvest is good, they collect it from the hands of the people, and then wait until there is no more supply, and then sell it.
Once it changes hands, there is at least a 30-50% profit.
Is this considered hoarding?
Naturally, it counts, but the problem is that there are too many such people, all over the north and south, and there are so many of them. The Ming court can manage major cities and traffic arteries, but there are still too many places that it cannot control at all and cannot manage them.
To put it bluntly, this is the normal state of agricultural society.
In an agricultural society, scarcity is the norm, so storage habits have been developed from top to bottom.
Grain, cloth, in many places, they simply saved money and put it in the cellar, thus creating a money shortage.
Because everyone knows that materials are precious and food is valuable. As long as you save it, it will definitely increase in value.
This morbid concept has caused commodity funds to stagnate and lose circulation. Once a famine occurs in a certain place, sorry, there will be no other place to replenish it, and the price of food can only skyrocket.
If the court's relief is not in place, refugees will appear.
To solve this problem, it is not too difficult. One of the most direct ways is to obtain enough goods so that they are no longer in short supply, then smash them down and tell everyone that the rules have changed. Don't think about accumulation.
materials, but to create more wealth.
"Your Highness, and gentlemen, this matter is not without precedent in the Ming Dynasty, such as Changlu Saltworks. What is the price of salt in the Ming Dynasty now? You should all know it, right?"
Sun Yan gave another example, and this time everyone who was still hesitant gradually changed their minds... Yes, it seems to make sense!
At the beginning, Peiping was recovered, the Changlu Salt Field was opened, military expenditures were raised to raise troops, and the Great Wall was built.
Now that these years have passed, looking back at the original approach, it is definitely very successful.
The Yuan Dynasty inherited the salt laws of the Song Dynasty. At that time, the lowest price of salt was thirty or fifty cents per catty. Ordinary people suffered from the high price of salt. The court did not receive much salt tax, but only enriched the middle layers.
salt merchant.
They sit at home and make money without doing anything.
The salt merchants at that time were very similar to the grain merchants today. One got the right to operate salt, the other hoarded grain, and then waited to make a fortune.
Let me ask, how efficient is this way of doing business and making money? There is no progress at all. It is just about amassing wealth.
What did Zhang Ximeng do at Changlu Saltworks?
First, implement the sun-dried salt method to obtain enough salt, and then sell it in large quantities, marketing it all over the world at a very low price.
For those places with inconvenient transportation, the court set up salt shops or used Changping warehouses to sell salt at a fair price.
After all this hard work, salt is no longer valuable.
In one fell swoop, the price of salt was raised to seven cents.
Even the poorest people can afford salt.
And because the salt farm produces as much salt as it pays in taxes.
Not only has the salt tax not been reduced, it has also been greatly increased.
What's even more interesting is that the price of salt is so low that the private salt business that has been raging for thousands of years has disappeared, and there is almost no room for private salt dealers to survive.
At once, almost all problems were solved.
It can be called the Ming Dynasty’s virtuous government.
Sun Yan was still with Zhang Ximeng at that time and was very familiar with the whole process.
Thinking about it now, he was still in admiration and admiration.
In fact, just by rectifying the Salt Law, it can be seen that Zhang Ximeng's ability to do things is absolutely first-rate. Even Lao Li has no advantage at all.
It's just that Zhang Ximeng doesn't want to get involved in government affairs.
At this moment, Sun Yan also wanted to use a similar method to sell Peiping's grain on a large scale to fill the shortfalls in the markets in various places, drive down the price of grain, and make those grain merchants lose their profit margins.
"Prime Minister Sun, what will ordinary people do if this happens? Their income will also be reduced!" Wang Guangyang whispered.
Sun Yan smiled, "Maybe it will be reduced, but if we can encourage them to leave their hometowns and work in the north, or enter factories and work as workers, we can make up for the gap, and maybe they can earn more."
Wang Guangyang frowned, "Prime Minister Sun, not everyone can leave their hometown. If you do this, you will be infamy!"
Sun Yan laughed, "You are right, but if we do nothing and confine people to the land, we will still be stigmatized and said to be incompetent. In this case, it is better to take drastic measures and carve out a bloody path. As for the consequences
No matter what, I am willing to fight shoulder to shoulder. If the result is not good, then I, Sun Yan, will be punished."
After a pause, he continued: "When that time comes, please ask Xianggong Wang to step forward and clean up the mess. Remember, you must not be polite to Sun. I will be the one to blame for the death of the nine tribes by cutting him into pieces with a thousand cuts!"
Wang Guangyang's old face turned red instantly, "Sun, you are such an idiot! What do you mean by this? You are clearly warning me, don't hold me back or hold you back!"
Okay, you can do it!
Watching the mute Wang Guangyang eating Coptis chinensis, Sun Yan felt secretly happy.
How many years have I studied with Grand Master Zhang? He is full of bad tricks, but he is just unwilling to use them because of his status. But it doesn't matter, I, Sun Yan, don't care, you want to fight with me, just study for a few more decades!
At this time, Zhu Biao suddenly spoke, "Food is only the first step. If everything goes well, there will be wood, oil, and woolen fabrics next... We must learn to use Peiping's products to reshape the entire Ming Dynasty!"
Zhu Biao clenched his fists and said, "As the prince who supervises the country, I am personally responsible for this matter. If it cannot benefit the country and the people, I am willing to resign as prince!"
(End of chapter)
Please remember the first domain name of this book:. Mobile version reading URL: