Emperor Hongzhi stood on the deck and looked at Vladivostok in front of him. The port and the size of the city were both relatively small, far from being compared with the big cities and ports of the Ming Dynasty.
"Yes, Your Majesty, this is Vladivostok, one of the many new cities that has emerged due to the rapid development of our Ming Dynasty in recent years."
Liu Jin on the side nodded and said.
When it comes to the cities of the Ming Dynasty, in addition to the rapid development and expansion of local cities, another feature is that overseas cities have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain, in places like Nanyang, Hezhong, Western Regions, Liaodong and so on.
With the continuous influx of immigrants and the development of these places, cities continue to appear and develop rapidly.
Vladivostok is one of them.
In the past, it was a place where Ming Dynasty exiled criminals. In the earliest days, Ming Dynasty developed some remote areas by exiling criminals.
Places such as Beihai, Winter City, Congling, etc. are places that immigrants are unwilling to immigrate to, but the Ming Dynasty needs to carry out certain development in these places to consolidate the Ming Empire's rule over these places, so there is a plan to exile criminals
every place.
Relatively speaking, the conditions in Vladivostok are actually very good. Liaodong is a wealthy place and it is not far from the Ming Dynasty. It also has railway and highway transportation. It is still a good place to be exiled here.
"The immigration policy you proposed was right. If there had not been a large-scale immigration of Ming people, I am afraid that our Ming Dynasty would not be as prosperous as it is now."
Hongzhi looked at the city of Vladivostok in front of him, thought about it and sighed.
Of course he knows the situation best in Ming Dynasty.
In the past, the Ming Dynasty had more people and less land, and the land conflict was extremely acute. A large amount of land was in the hands of a small number of gentry landlords and wealthy families. A large number of farmers did not have their own land at all and could only make a living by farming land for others. Their lives were extremely difficult.
The hardships are always on the weak string.
Once there is a natural or man-made disaster, the land will be filled with hunger, wars will break out, and the people will be in dire straits. It can be said that such a Ming Dynasty is actually quite fragile and dangerous.
Later, with the expansion of the Ming Empire, under the leadership of Liu Jin, the Ming court began to organize large-scale immigration and move a large number of people to the newly acquired land.
Liaodong, the Western Regions, Hezhong, Nanyang, Australia, Golden Continent, Central Asia, Nanyun, Black Earth, etc., a large amount of land was included in the territory of the Ming Dynasty. These places were fertile, vast and sparsely populated.
When the people of Ming Dynasty immigrated to these places, they felt like they were reborn. Relying on their hard work and wisdom, they quickly took root in these places and settled down.
Not only did he own a large amount of land and live a happy life, but it also consolidated the Ming Empire's rule over these places, also alleviated the contradiction and pressure between man and land in the Ming Dynasty, and greatly eased the ecological pressure in the Ming Dynasty.
, population and land pressure.
The former Loess Plateau has been fragmented, but there are still a large number of people living a difficult life there, living like weeds without even drinking water.
Even though I have been tired and miserable, I will make the environment of the Loess Plateau even worse.
Now most of the people on the Loess Plateau have emigrated to the fertile Liaodong, Hezhong, Black Soil and other areas. The people have lived a good life, and the environment here on the Loess Plateau has also been recuperated and is getting better and better.
It is said that the Yellow River is clear when a saint comes out. The water of the Yellow River is indeed becoming clearer and clearer now. This is because there are fewer people on the Loess Plateau and the environment is slowly recovering on its own.
The Vladivostok in front of us is just one of the many places where Ming people immigrated.
However, look at the small town in front of you. Everything here looks so peaceful and harmonious. You can clearly see it with a telescope. The people here are well fed and clothed, and everyone is in good spirits.
Yes, children are even playing in the snow, making snowmen, etc.
Each of these children is very healthy and strong, unlike the scenes I saw during the snowstorm. At that time, let alone the children, even the adults were in ragged clothes and wore extremely thin clothes in the winter.
, cold and purple. Skinny.
"Haha, as the saying goes, if you move a tree to death, you will move a person to death. We, the Ming Dynasty, are hardworking and intelligent people. In the past, we were limited to the little land in our country, so we lived a very hard life."
"Now that our country, Ming Dynasty, has a huge territory, abundant resources, and lots of land, the people of our country, Ming Dynasty, will naturally be able to live a prosperous life."
When Liu Jin heard this, he immediately smiled and said.
To be honest, this is what Liu Jin has always felt most proud of.
That is, through external expansion, the Ming Dynasty has a vast land and the people of the Ming Dynasty have a wider living space. It also allows the people of the Ming Dynasty to have a new cradle through immigration.
As for new learning, becoming the chief minister of the cabinet, having a huge net worth, etc., these are actually not important in Liu Jin's opinion.
"Yes, the people of Ming Dynasty are very hardworking and intelligent. As long as we have land, we can build beautiful homes."
Emperor Hongzhi also nodded solemnly in agreement.
This time I went out to make a lot of money and built many places in the Ming Dynasty. I also traveled around a lot in overseas places. I saw brand-new cities one after another, appreciated the wealth and prosperity of the Ming Dynasty overseas, and got to know the people of the Ming Dynasty in just two years.
It took ten years to build a piece of sky overseas and build a beautiful home.
Emperor Hongzhi knew that he was really wrong before.
Blindly believe in the nonsense of those civil servants, that the emperor rules from the top, governs the country with benevolence, righteousness and morality, governs the country with filial piety, is wary and will perish, and resorts to militarism.
This is all bullshit.
It's just something created by civil servants in order to consolidate their interests and rule.
These civil servants are interest groups. They enslave countless ordinary people in the Ming Dynasty and live a life of superiority. All they care about is their own interests.
The so-called people in their mouth refer to the scholar-bureaucrat class and the gentry class. As for the ordinary people, they cannot be regarded as the people at all. They are just the lowest level of livestock, like leeks, and lambs that they can constantly slaughter.
They hoped that Emperor Hongzhi would listen to them in everything, so that their interests and rule could be consolidated.
As for the life, death and hardships of the people at the bottom, it has nothing to do with them. Anyway, the land is in their hands, and the right to speak is in their hands.
As for external affairs, if peace can be negotiated, then let's do so. If peace cannot be negotiated, the worst case scenario is to let them rob us. If they have robbed enough, they will naturally leave.
It is impossible to fight a war, because if there is a war, the generals and noble groups will rise up and rob them of their right to speak.
What this land and this country really need to pay attention to is the lives of the people at the bottom, and the ones who need to be least concerned about are the gentry and landlords.
As long as the people at the bottom can live a good life, everything else in Ming Dynasty will be easy to handle and everything else will become better.
On the contrary, as long as the people at the bottom do not have a good life, then worrying about other things is just boiling water to quench the boil and drinking poison to quench thirst, which has no meaning or effect at all.
Just like when there was a famine in the past, no matter how good the disaster relief was and the people were able to survive the famine, it was still very difficult for the people.
When another famine comes, they are still hungry, there are still wars, and the people are still in dire straits.
Essentially, it is because the people do not have their own land, and the food they grow has to be exploited. The people's family resources are too thin, and life becomes difficult when the wind and rain blow.
Look now, famines still happen every year, either there is a severe drought in Henan or a flood in the Yangtze River, but are people now afraid of famines?
I am not afraid of famine at all. I have stock and money at home. Even in a year of famine, I can still live comfortably. Food is cheap. Let alone not farming for one year, it will be okay if I don’t farm for three to five years. Besides,
You can also go to work in the city and earn a few taels of silver a month to buy enough food to feed your family for several years.
So even if there is a famine now, it is not a big deal.
A large number of people have immigrated to various places. If a famine occurs in one place, the population is limited, and other places can quickly provide support.
Now that the memorial about the famine is coming, Emperor Hongzhi is not anxious at all, and the situation described in the memorial is also different from before.
In the past, there was a severe drought, with no rain for several months, the people were famine, the ground was full of hungry people, war smoke was everywhere, bandits were roaring in the mountains and forests, etc. Then the court was asked to allocate how much money, food, soldiers and horses to come to relieve the disaster, quell the chaos, and suppress the bandits.
What.
It often causes headaches for a long time. Sometimes once it spreads, several provinces may suffer half to death, and I will inevitably have to eat and sleep poorly for several months.
Nowadays, local officials' memorials usually say that there is a severe drought, there has been no rain for several months, and farmers have no harvest. They ask the court to allocate some grain and money to relieve the disaster, and also request exemption from this year's taxes.
As for the people, life should continue as it should, and there won't be any big fluctuations or changes. After all, there are fewer and fewer people farming now. The land is in the hands of the landlords and gentry, and there is nothing left for them to farm.
Generally speaking, these landowners and gentry need to drive their own machines to farm the land. They have money and can afford all kinds of ditches, pumping equipment, etc. Even if there is no harvest, it will not affect them.
It’s not big, it’s just a matter of collecting less grain, which can’t be sold for much money anyway.
Nowadays, many of the landowners and gentry have turned to open factories and workshops to do business. Who is still going to guard the grain of the land?
