Chapter 591, discussing the development of Liaodong
In the study of Emperor Hongzhi in the Qianqing Palace in Beijing.
The three cabinet ministers, Liu Jian, Xie Qian, Li Dongyang, Hubu Shangshu Ji Zhong, War Ministry Shangshu Liu Daxia, plus the British Duke Zhang Mao, the Chengguo Duke Zhu Fu and Liu Jin, who had just returned from Liaodong, were all sitting together. , discussing endlessly over a map of Liaodong.
"Your Majesty, these Jurchens have long been ambitious. We found the flag of the Jurchens in Jianzhou that they plan to establish the Jin Kingdom after conquering Liaodong."
"After our interrogation of the Jurchen tribal leaders, we can confirm that these Jurchens are planning to establish the Jin Kingdom in Liaodong."
Liu Jin reported his work in Liaodong to Emperor Hongzhi and the ministers. The focus was naturally on the extermination of the Jurchen tribes this time.
"Hmph~"
"It's really a wolf's ambition, a man who doesn't know his own abilities, a frog in the well, and a arrogant man."
After hearing Liu Jin's report, Zhang Mao couldn't help but say.
Now that the Ming Dynasty is at its peak and its national power is extremely powerful, they actually want to establish the Jin Kingdom here in Liaodong, which is simply courting death.
"Your Majesty, gentlemen, I collected this in the Liaodong area. For a long time, these Jurchen tribes have robbed the border residents of our Ming Dynasty Liaodong Capital Division, burned, killed, looted, and committed all kinds of evil. This year alone, more than ten guard posts have been attacked by the Jurchens Hundreds of people were looted and killed, and thousands more were taken as slaves."
"When we broke through the Jurchen walled city, we found a large number of slaves, all of whom were my Ming people. These Jurchens called my Ming people two-legged sheep. They were treated as property and could be traded and killed at will."
Then Liu Jin said another shocking thing.
"Two-legged sheep?"
When Emperor Hongzhi and the ministers heard this, they couldn't help but widen their eyes. They didn't expect that when the Ming Dynasty was so powerful, the people of the Ming Dynasty were still being treated so badly. They were not even human beings.
"Yes, Your Majesty~"
"Among the Jurchen tribes in Jianzhou, we have rescued nearly 20,000 Ming people in total. They have long maintained the destruction and oppression of the Jurchens."
"The Jurchens are extremely cruel and require them to shave their heads and grow their Jurchen rat tail braids. If they refuse, they will be beheaded immediately."
Liu Jin nodded solemnly and said.
"How unreasonable is it to treat our Ming people like this?"
After hearing this, Emperor Hongzhi immediately became angry and couldn't help but stand up.
Then he thought about it and said, "Why haven't I received any notice from Liaodong Dusi regarding these matters?"
"Your Majesty, these Jurchens have been bribing the commander-in-chief, deputy commander-in-chief and others of the Liaodong Division for a long time. I want to impeach Jiang Ji, the commander-in-chief of the Liaodong Division. He took bribes, ignored the life and death of the border people, wantonly suppressed the border people, suppressed the border people, and targeted the Tatars. He turned a blind eye to his plunder."
Having said this, Liu Jin suddenly became very angry and directly impeached Jiang Hebei.
He has been suppressing the situation on the Liaodong Dusi side. Emperor Hongzhi and the princes in the court did not know anything about the Liaodong side. They had always thought that the Liaodong side was safe and sound, but they did not expect the border residents of the Liaodong Dusi. Military households live in dire straits.
On the one hand, they have to be squeezed by the general soldiers of the guards, thousands of households, and hundreds of households. On the other hand, they have to be robbed and killed by the Jurchen Tatars.
However, they had nowhere to redress their grievances. Liaodong was a bitterly cold place, and there had always been only military households and exiled prisoners. They had no way of leaving the Liaodong area.
This also resulted in the commander-in-chief of the Liaodong Dusi controlling the sky in Liaodong, taking advantage of the Jurchens and ignoring them.
"Bang~"
"How unreasonable~"
When Emperor Hongzhi heard this, he became completely angry and slammed the table.
"Come here, go investigate this matter immediately, and be sure to give an explanation to the people of Liaodong."
"Yes~"
Someone quickly took the order to investigate the matter.
Emperor Hongzhi knew very well that Liu Jin had never impeached anyone. This time Liu Jin impeached Jiang Ji, it must be that Jiang Ji had a problem and had done something outrageous. Otherwise, with Liu Jin's character, he would never
I will use the method of impeachment.
"Liu Jin, you are doing very well in Liaodong."
"If you hadn't gone to Liaodong this time, I wouldn't have known that people in our Ming Dynasty were treated like this."
"I look at those Jurchens who were sent to Ryukyu and Nanyang, and devalued them as slaves."
After getting angry, Emperor Hongzhi quickly regained his composure, then thought about it and said.
"this…"
When Liu Jian and others heard this, they immediately looked at each other.
Emperor Hongzhi grew up with Confucian education and had always been generous to others, but he did not expect that in this matter, Emperor Hongzhi would demote these Jurchens as slaves of the times.
This means that as long as the Ming Dynasty is still around, the old Zhu family still has the final say in this world, and these Jurchens will never be able to stand up.
This style of doing things is very different from that of the previous Emperor Hongzhi, and he is a completely different person.
"Everyone, let's talk about how to develop this Liaodong area?"
After talking about these things, Emperor Hongzhi looked at everyone and focused on developing Liaodong.
"Liu Jin, you have been to Liaodong, please tell me first."
Everyone was silent, no one took the initiative to stand up and speak. Emperor Hongzhi looked at Liu Jin and called him by name.
"Your Majesty, I went to Liaodong this time and conducted a relatively in-depth investigation of the Liaodong area."
"Everyone, please look at the map~"
"Liaodong is surrounded by mountains on three sides: Greater Khingan Range, Lesser Khingan Range, Changbai Mountain, and the Bohai Sea to the south. Now the grasslands to the west have been included in our Ming Dynasty territory. The Jurchen tribe in Liaodong has also been eliminated by us. The entire Liaodong region has become very safe."
"Liaodong is very close to our Beijing-Tianjin area. From Shanhaiguan to the north, there is a vast plain. If we build a cement road, it will not take more than a few days to get to Liaodong."
"If you take a boat, you can directly reach the Liaohe River and go deep into it along the Liaohe River."
"The land here is black soil. The land is very rich and fertile, and it is extremely conducive to farming."
"In addition, I have also investigated that in the Liaodong region, there are a lot of coal and iron ores, plus rich forest resources and vast fertile plains."
"If the Liaodong region can be developed, it will be enough to support tens of millions of people."
Liu Jin stood up, came to the map, and began to explain the map.
After hearing Liu Jin's words, Emperor Hongzhi and the ministers also listened carefully. When they heard that it could feed tens of millions of people, everyone couldn't help but widen their eyes.
"However, because the Liaodong region has always been outside the Central Plains, it has not been effectively developed since ancient times."
"The population here is sparsely populated. The total population of the entire Liaodong region is less than 400,000. They are mainly concentrated in the areas where the Liaodong capital is located."
"In addition, the weather in Liaodong is cold, especially in winter. It is much colder than our Beijing-Tianjin region, which is very unfavorable for the development of Liaodong."
Then the conversation changed, and Liu Jin also talked about two problems in the development of Liaodong area. One is that there are no people, and the other is that it is relatively cold here.
"The cold weather is relatively easy to solve. The most important thing is people."
"If you want to develop Liaodong, you need at least a population of more than five million to be able to achieve preliminary development."
"With such a huge population, there is no way to attract people to the Liaodong region just by relying on preferential immigration conditions."
"So my suggestion is to move five million people from Shaanxi, Henan, and Shaanxi to Liaodong."
Liu Jin looked at everyone, thought about it and put forward his own suggestions.
“Relocate five million people?”
When everyone heard this, they immediately took a breath. How much financial, manpower and material resources would be needed to move such a huge population, let alone from Shaanxi, Henan and Shanxi.
This is simply impossible. People in these places simply will not be willing to migrate out.
"Why are people migrating from Shaanxi, Henan and Shanxi?"
"Can't we move people from Shandong and Beizhili nearby?"
Liu Jian thought for a while and said.
"Your Majesty, gentlemen, I wonder if you all still remember the things I have experienced between people and the natural environment?"
Liu Jin nodded slightly, thought for a while and asked.
"Remember, you said that the environment of a region can support a limited population. Once the number exceeds, it will cause serious damage to the environment and bring extremely serious consequences."
Emperor Hongzhi nodded slightly and said.
"Your Majesty, gentlemen~"
"Shaanxi, Henan and Shanxi are considered the origins of our Chinese civilization. These places have a long history, and almost all the land has been reclaimed as cultivated land."
"During the Qin and Han Dynasties, there were still large areas of forest that could be cut down in Shaanxi and Henan, but now, the forests in these places have long been cleared."
"The population density of these three provinces is much higher than that of other provinces, and the natural environment in these places is very harsh. Since ancient times, once there is any famine in these places, wars will inevitably break out."
"In all dynasties, most of the wars erupted from these places."
"On the other hand, the southern region has a small population, a good environment, and few famines. Even if there are famines, these places can survive smoothly, and wars are rarely seen."
"In the final analysis, the population in these places is too large and the environment is too harsh."
"The Liaodong region has a sparse population and a good environment. Therefore, if people from these places are moved to the Liaodong region, it will not only greatly alleviate the contradiction between man and land in these places, but also develop the Liaodong region."
Liu Jin finished speaking in one breath.
This concept is still relatively advanced in this era, but it is the result of research by many experts and scholars in later generations, and it is definitely not wrong.
Historically, a very important reason for the demise of the Ming Dynasty was the continuous famines during the Little Ice Age. Henan, Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Shandong were suffering from famine for many years. The people could no longer survive, so they would naturally rebel.
Why do these places suffer from famine year after year?
A very important reason is that there are too many people here, too little land, and the natural environment is extremely fragile. If it rains a little more, it will cause floods, and the Yellow River will overflow and burst its banks, causing floods.
If it rains less, there will be drought in these places, and there will be no water in many places that should not be farmland in the first place. If there are too many people, famine will naturally follow.
It's different in the south. The natural environment is good and there are many forests. It doesn't matter if it rains more or less. In addition, the population density is small, so naturally there won't be any disasters, unless it's a disaster.
A particularly serious disaster can otherwise be easily overcome.
This is the benefit of having a superior natural environment.
