Emperor Hongzhi thought for a long time and carefully combined the history he had learned. It seemed that what Liu Jin said was indeed correct.
With the development of history, the entire center has been moving southwards. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, although the Jiangnan area was important, it was far less important than the Hanzhong area.
However, with the development of history, the status of Hanzhong area became weaker and weaker, while the status of Jiangnan area became higher and higher, gradually becoming the center of population and economy, and in the Southern Song Dynasty, it became the political center.
When the Ming Dynasty was founded, his ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang also relied on the prosperity of the Jiangnan region to achieve great things. On the contrary, the original Hanzhong region gradually lost everything it had.
One of the big reasons for this is that the environment in Hanzhong, the original place of origin of the Chinese nation, is getting worse and worse, and it is no longer suitable to become a political center.
The same is true for the entire northern region. Over the long history, too many fields have been cultivated here, and forests, vegetation, etc. have been severely damaged.
Once there is any natural disaster, refugees will immediately spread in these areas and the sky will be full of wars.
Although the current Ming Dynasty has undergone more than ten years of hard work by Emperor Hongzhi, all aspects have improved, and it is also called the Hongzhi ZTE.
But as an emperor, Emperor Hongzhi knew very well that this so-called ZTE was actually very fragile. Once there was a disaster or something, it would immediately be the same as recorded in the history books.
Apart from anything else, the weather is too cold now, and the refugees who can no longer survive are coming towards the capital area. Although the number is not large, if this severe cold continues, it is estimated that in a few months, especially food
After eating, there will be more refugees.
Therefore, Emperor Hongzhi knew very well in his heart that he was quite qualified as an emperor, even ZTE was. If he met an emperor like his father Ming Xianzong, no one knew what would happen to the world.
In the end, most likely like other dynasties in history, along with one after another peasant uprisings, the dynasty of Lao Zhu's family was eventually overthrown.
Thinking of this, Emperor Hongzhi looked at Liu Jin, hoping to find a good solution from Liu Jin. Since Liu Jin knew this, he would definitely have some good solutions.
Liu Jian, Xie Qian, and Li Dongyang heard what Emperor Hongzhi said, and they all began to think deeply. They knew very well what Emperor Hongzhi was thinking about now. For Emperor Hongzhi, nothing is more important than the legacy of the old Zhu family.
It's more important.
"The solution is actually both simple and difficult."
"One is nothing more than constant external migration and expansion, just like our ancestors, who slowly migrated and expanded from the Hanzhong area to every corner of the entire Ming Dynasty."
"Continuously evacuate the population in the north and move the excess population to areas with better natural conditions. In this way, even if there is a disaster in the north, there will not be too big a problem if the population here is relatively small."
"The other is to use coal to replace charcoal, reduce deforestation, and pay attention to protecting mountain forests."
Liu Jin thought for a while and said, thinking in his heart, whether it is a bit too advanced to talk about protecting mountains and forests in this era.
"Relocate the population and protect the mountains and forests?"
When everyone heard this, they all thought carefully.
"If the population has moved away, who will cultivate the land?"
Li Dongyang thought for a while and asked, in the era of small-scale peasant economy, everything was maintained on the land. Naturally, when the emperor was most concerned about agricultural issues.
Even when Zhu Yuanzhang founded the country, he formulated strict policies to strictly prohibit the movement of the population. All of this was to lock people firmly into the land. Only in this way can society be more stable.
"Our dynasty has always implemented the household service system in order to prevent the flow of the population. Now you are talking about relocating the population. This is contrary to the ancestral system."
Hearing Li Dongyang's words, Emperor Hongzhi, Liu Jian and others also nodded slightly. This household service system was a national policy established by Zhu Yuanzhang and has continued to this day. How can it be easily changed.
"Well, during the Taizu period, how many household registrations did I have in Ming Dynasty, and how many people did I have?"
"Now, how many household registrations do I have in Daming, and how many people do I have?"
Liu Jin thought for a while and asked.
"During Taizu's time, the Ming Dynasty had about 10 million households and a population of 60 million. Now it has 9 million households and a population of about 50 million."
Xie Qian reported the data almost without thinking.
"Do you think this data is accurate?"
"When our dynasty was founded, the world had gone through Yuanhu's persecution, and the population was 60 million. Now more than 100 years have passed. Although there have been many twists and turns, generally speaking, it is peaceful and peaceful. The population of our dynasty has not only not increased.
, but it has decreased, only about 50 million."
When Liu Jin heard this, he immediately laughed. He did not expect that land annexation has become so serious in this era. In the past 100 years of development, the population has not only not increased, but has decreased. Only a ghost would believe it.
This is the official statistics of the Ming Dynasty, which shows that the number of hidden people in the entire world is very large, and it can even be said that at least tens of millions of people are hidden.
The reason why these people are hidden is simply to pay less taxes and avoid having to perform corvee labor. In addition, the gentry and wealthy families in other places will have a large number of people hiding. The more people are hidden, the more powerful the land annexation will be.
Hearing Liu Jin's words, Emperor Hongzhi, Liu Jian, Xie Qian, Li Dongyang and others were also slightly stunned. They had only seen this number before, but they had never thought about this problem.
"Yeah, why is the population decreasing?"
Everyone thought about it carefully, and soon, they had some answers in their minds.
"In the era without war, under the policy of encouraging childbirth, the population of the entire country must have been growing. The current population is even smaller than when the country was founded. There must be a large number of people hidden, and hidden.
The numbers are absolutely staggering."
"We don't care about why a large number of people are hidden. Now we will simply talk about the relationship between population and land. After that, you may understand that as time changes, the country's policies should be
Continuously adjust according to changes in the times.”
Liu Jin looked at everyone who was slightly stunned, smiled and continued.
As a person of later generations, anyone who has studied history at all knows that the number of people hidden in ancient times was absolutely huge, and the largest hidden people were naturally the gentry and wealthy families. The root of all this is because the population is combined with taxes, corvee
Linked, hiding people is almost a way of evading taxes.
