With Feng Shiyong, a typical chicken being killed, exposed to the many feudal officials present, the ensuing debriefing meeting completely changed.
Each of the feudal officials began to talk in a decent manner about what they had done during their tenure, how much the population had increased, how much tax they collected every year, what plans they had for the future, etc.
There are indeed many practical officials among them who have done a lot of things.
This impressed Liu Jin as an official from Huangjinzhou. During his tenure, he actually started building Huangjinzhou's first railway.
This is a railway connecting Penglai City and a port city on the east coast of the Pacific Ocean, running through the east and west of Huangjin Continent. With this railway, it will become more convenient to travel from the east coast to the west coast of Huangjin Continent.
Although the railway construction has been vigorously carried out in the Ming Dynasty, there is still no plan for the Ming Dynasty overseas.
Unexpectedly, railway construction has already begun in Huangjinzhou.
You must know that building railways is not building cement roads. The investment in building railways is very huge. It costs 50,000 taels to build one mile of road. This is still in the plains, so the cost is high.
Without funding from the Ming court or funds raised through listing on the Tianjin Stock Exchange, it would have been difficult to raise enough funds to build the railway.
But on the Golden Continent, this official actually raised enough funds to start building the Golden Continent's first railway. He was able to talk and fool the kings of the Aztec Kingdom and the Inca Empire into investing in the construction of this railway.
In addition, this official was able to combine the situation of Huanghuangzhou and vigorously encourage the Han people to take the indigenous women of Huangjinzhou as concubines, which greatly eased the relationship between the Han people and the local indigenous people, promoted mutual integration, and consolidated the Ming Dynasty's rule over various parts of Huangjinzhou.
, more and more indigenous tribes in Huangjinzhou accepted the rule of the Ming Empire here.
Of course, the most important thing is that because of this policy, the population of Huanghuangzhou has skyrocketed. A Han will often have dozens of children in just a few years. As long as these children grow up, the Ming Dynasty will have more control over Huanghuangzhou.
Control will be stronger and development will be deeper.
Instead of like now, although Golden Continent belongs to the Ming Empire, because there are so few people in Golden Continent, most of the areas cannot be developed and are still in the hands of tribes descended from the Yin Shang.
In addition, there was Zhong Fan, the chief minister from Guangdong. He also left a deep impression on Liu Jin. In the past few years, he had vigorously introduced investment and concentrated manpower and material resources to build ports.
Attract more people to build factories, build trading houses, carry out port trade, etc. in Guangdong.
You must know that Guangdong at this time and Guangdong in later generations are completely different concepts.
In later generations, Guangdong was the largest province, far surpassing other provinces in terms of population, economy and other aspects.
But in this era, Guangdong is definitely an unknown little brother. Not only is it not as good as Fujian around it, but it is also far behind Huguang and Jiangxi in the north.
Whether it is population, economy or other aspects, among the provinces in the Ming Dynasty, Guangdong is considered a very backward place. After all, it has been said since ancient times that Lingnan is full of miasma and a barbaric land. As for Qiongzhou, it has been said since ancient times.
They are all places where prisoners are exiled.
You said that such a place can be attractive, but naturally it cannot compare with these inland provinces.
That is to say, in later generations, due to the coastal areas and policy support, Guangdong took off and became the big brother.
But the situation in Ming Dynasty is completely different now.
First of all, the Ming Dynasty's earliest route to Southeast Asia was through Ryukyu. This route to Luzon perfectly avoided Guangdong. After years of development, Ryukyu has become much stronger than Guangdong.
Not only are there a large number of plantations, the cane sugar industry is very developed, but now the shipbuilding industry in Ryukyu is also beginning to rise. Tianjin Shipyard has set up a branch factory in Ryukyu. Driven by it, other local industries in Ryukyu are also developing rapidly.
More and more ports were built, and relying on geographical advantages, trade was extremely prosperous.
Guangdong is miserable. Without the advantage of this route, there would be far fewer ships traveling to and from Guangdong. In addition, there is no foundation in the first place, not even Ryukyu.
In the Nanyang region to the south, several provinces in Nanyang were used to farm cattle. Now they have become the granary and sugar warehouse of the Ming Dynasty. The plantation economy is extremely developed. At the same time, because it is the ultimate route to the West, sea trade is extremely developed.
As for ports, there are countless excellent natural ports in Southeast Asia. Crescent City (formerly Manila) now has a population of over one million and is the largest port city in Southeast Asia.
Because of these factors, Guangdong completely lost the advantages of coastal areas in later generations.
There is no way, there are too many coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty. From north to south, it is the territory of the Ming Dynasty. When it reaches Nanyang, there are several major Nanyang provinces, and even Australia, it is the territory of the Ming Dynasty.
Strictly speaking, Guangdong is not a coastal city anymore, it is considered an inland sea. Naturally, it has no geographical advantages and no policy advantages.
The Ming Dynasty's current policy is to support immigration overseas and support the development of several provinces in Nanyang. As for its little brother Guangdong, which originally had two capitals and thirteen provinces, it also wants to organize some immigrants to go out.
Under these factors, it is almost impossible for Guangdong to develop as rapidly as later generations and become a big brother. It will even take a long time to develop.
However, Zhong Fan, the chief minister of Guangdong, had great ideas and achievements.
First of all, relying on the iron ore in Qiongzhou (Qiongzhou was under the jurisdiction of Guangdong at this time) attracted Miyun Iron Works to establish a large-scale steel plant in Qiongzhou to smelt steel, which in turn led to the development of a series of related industries.
At the same time, the shipbuilding industry was developed in Qiongzhou and Guangzhou. Following the rise of maritime trade in the Ming Dynasty, the shipbuilding industry developed rapidly and became one of the most important shipbuilding centers in the south during the Ming Dynasty. The Tianjin Shipyard has a branch factory in Guangdong.
In addition, Guangdong also has the advantages of Guangdong. Guangdong has many excellent natural harbors. The land at the Pearl River outlet is flat, open and fertile. In addition, Guangdong is not cold all year round.
Therefore, he focused on raising funds to build ports and docks, and introduced major commercial banks and factories to build factories and invest in Guangdong. In addition, Guangdong is also an important transportation hub heading west to Guangxi, Jiaozhi, and Xianglin provinces.
a route.
At the same time, Guangdong is connected to the two inland provinces of Huguang and Jiangxi to the north. After the highway is built, many important commercial exchanges will become more convenient, which is much more convenient than traveling along the Yangtze River.
Making full use of its favorable conditions, seizing opportunities, and vigorously introducing factories and firms, Guangdong has also developed extremely rapidly.
The shipbuilding industry, the steel industry, and the textile industry are developing rapidly, and they are doing very well, and it feels like they are catching up from behind.
This had to make Liu Jin sigh. Sure enough, the most important thing is people. As long as you are willing to do it and think about it, everything is possible and you can turn disadvantages into advantages.
I originally thought that it would take at least another hundred or two hundred years for Guangdong to develop. After all, the Ming Dynasty now has too many good places.
In the north there are the rapidly developing Beizhili, Liaodong, and Shandong, and in the middle there is the originally wealthy South Zhili and Jiangnan. Even inland, relying on the convenience of river transportation on the Yangtze River, with the advent of steamships, river transportation and sea transportation are actually not the same.
There isn't much difference.
Huguang and Jiangxi are also rapidly keeping up with the trend and pace of development, not much worse than coastal areas.
To the south, Zhejiang, Ryukyu, and Fujian are, of course, needless to say. The four provinces of Nanyang are developing rapidly with their plantation economy. Even here in Australia, relying on the vast land and sparse population, the breeding industry has taken off rapidly. The wool and mutton produced are estimated to be
It will surpass the Northern Grassland Province in a few years.
To the west, Xiyu, Hezhong, and Nanyun are developing faster than the other. Relying on safe land transportation, east-west trade has taken off, driving the development of many industries along the way.
It can be said that the entire Ming Dynasty, each province is taking off, and each one is better than the other. Guangdong really does not have a big advantage. It is really impossible to be the big brother like later generations. It has been put on the same level as Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan.
place.
Unexpectedly, under Zhong Fan's governance, it started to slowly keep up with the pace of development, which is rare.
The debriefing meeting is like an exam, a summary of the past three years of work to see what kind of report card you have handed over.
Some people are proactive and lead the places they manage to achieve breakthroughs one after another. Some are engaged in infrastructure construction, such as cement roads, ports, bridges, reservoirs, dams, etc., and they can be considered to have achieved good results.
There are also people who are similar to Feng Shiyong, who cross their legs and continue to behave like traditional officials, guarding good places, but have not achieved any political achievements.
There were also people who wanted to deceive the superiors and deceive the superiors with lies, but they were exposed on the spot and were dismissed on the spot; there were also some corrupt officials who were imprisoned on the spot by Emperor Hongzhi's orders.
in.
The purpose of the debriefing meeting is just this. It is to talk about the past and plan for the future. It is also beneficial to the emperor and the imperial court to control these frontier officials in various places. It is appropriate to kill the chicken to show the monkeys and also to give a warning to these frontier officials.
, don’t think that the Emperor Tiangao can’t do anything to you if you are far away, and he will remove you at any time if you fail, in order to consolidate the Ming Dynasty’s rule over the entire huge territory.
Officials came forward one after another to report on their duties, and many of them were covered in cold sweats after they came down. A dozen officials who did not do anything were dismissed on the spot. Officials who did well were promoted and rewarded on the spot.
