In the study of Emperor Hongzhi in the Qianqing Palace of the Imperial Palace in Beijing, Emperor Hongzhi was discussing with several ministers the matter of consolidating Ming Dynasty's rule in the Western Regions and the Hezhong area.
"Your Majesty, if we want long-term stable rule in the Western Region and Hezhong region, immigration is indispensable. I think one million immigrants may not be enough."
"The fertile Hezhong area alone is enough to support tens of millions of people. The entire Western Region is vast, and we have very few Han people. We still need a large number of immigrants to enrich the Western Region and the Hezhong area."
Li Dongyang is the minister responsible for the affairs of the Western Regions. What he is most concerned about now is the issue of immigrants from the Western Regions. The imperial court's order has been issued to the three provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan. The three provinces are now organizing immigrants to the Western Regions in an orderly manner.
For this matter, Li Dongyang has been very busy recently.
Carrying out large-scale immigration in this era is not an easy task. Food and accommodation for immigrants are still a small matter. The real big thing is how quickly the immigrants take root and grow after they move there.
The Western Region and the Hezhong area are far away from the Central Plains. There are many tribes here and the people are fierce. There are too many things to consider.
This is completely different from immigrating to Liaodong area.
The Liaodong area is actually very close to Beizhili and can be reached by boat. This is extremely convenient for the transportation of people and materials. More importantly, the Jurchens in the Liaodong area were almost wiped out by the Ming army. The grassland became the grassland province of the Ming Dynasty again.
It can be said that the Liaodong area is very stable and safe. Immigrants who migrate there can settle down here in Liaodong as long as they can solve the problem of food and accommodation. After a year, they can reclaim land and grow food.
The situation in the Western Regions is more complicated. Although the Ming army pursued an iron-blooded policy in the Western Regions and the Hezhong region and wiped out many tribes, large and small, the Western Regions and the Hezhong region are still surrounded by wolves, and there are many large and small tribes inside. Various tribes.
All of these pose threats to immigrants.
Of course, this is all trivial. The Ming Dynasty’s 200,000 troops were stationed in the Western Regions and Hezhong areas, which was enough to suppress everything easily. The real difficulty is that the Western Regions and Hezhong areas are too vast, but there are very few Han people here. The Liaodong area used to be There are also hundreds of thousands of Han people there who have certain basic conditions.
"Li Gong, we must not continue large-scale immigration from the three provinces of Henan, Shaanxi, and Shanxi."
As soon as Li Dongyang finished speaking, Liu Jian, the chief minister of the cabinet, couldn't help but say.
"Why is this?"
Li Dongyang asked a little strangely. He insisted on relocating people from the Central Plains area to overseas. This was a national policy formulated a few years ago. In the Central Plains area, there is less land and more people. The natural environment is fragile. Whenever there is a disaster, there will be starvation and death everywhere. The phenomenon of eating a child and causing wars to spread.
In recent years, through immigration, a large number of people from these three provinces have moved to other places, which has gradually eased the contradiction between man and land in the Central Plains. The effect is very obvious and the role is great.
"Your Majesty, gentlemen~"
"This is a memorial from Henan that I just received. There are not many people here in Henan Province who can move out."
Liu Jian took out a memorial that had just arrived from Henan, and said anxiously.
“There are not many people left in Henan Province who can move out?”
When Emperor Hongzhi, Li Dongyang, Xie Qian and others heard this, they immediately became confused.
"If I remember correctly, Henan Province has probably relocated a million people."
Emperor Hongzhi thought for a while and said, among the immigrants organized by the government, some moved to Liaodong and some to Nanyang, which amounted to about one million. The situation in Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces was similar.
"Your Majesty, among the immigrants organized by our imperial government, the number of people who moved to Liaodong is 300,000, and the number of people who moved to Nanyang provinces totals about 700,000. A total of one million people have moved out of Henan."
"But this is only the scale of migration organized by our court. The scale and number of people voluntarily migrating abroad are several times this number!"
"According to Henan Chief Envoy Gao Bin, people from all over Henan were extremely reluctant to immigrate at first. It was difficult to leave their homeland, and many people were unwilling to move to other places."
"But since the immigrants from Liaodong and Nanyang gradually sent news back, everyone knows that after living in Liaodong and Nanyang is prosperous, a large number of immigrants have spontaneously migrated to Liaodong and Nanyang throughout Henan."
"The most serious among them is Lin County in Henan Province. Originally, Lin County had a total of about 20,000 households and about 100,000 people. However, since knowing the benefits of immigrating to Liaodong and Nanyang, the entire Lin County is now empty of every ten households, and almost all residents have spontaneously
They migrated to Liaodong and Nanyang."
"A large number of abandoned villages have appeared throughout Henan. Some villages, towns, and even entire villages and towns have spontaneously moved out."
"It seems that spring is about to begin, but the landowners and gentry here in Henan have discovered that no one is renting their land, because too many people are migrating to Liaodong and Nanyang."
"This time the imperial court encouraged migration to the Western Regions, which created a large-scale immigration wave. A large number of people spontaneously moved to the Western Regions."
Liu Jian said worriedly.
He is from Henan, and he has a lot of fields in his hometown in Henan. Although the income from the fields is no longer attractive to him, it would be a pity if the fields were deserted and no one was cultivating them. After all, it has been a pity since ancient times.
, Ming people all have deep feelings for the land.
Not to mention the fertile land being laid waste, even the fields in the mountains must be cultivated and cultivated. If the fertile land is deserted, it is a scene that only occurs in years of famine and troubled times.
Due to the loss of a large number of people in Henan, the land of the landlords and gentry has no one to cultivate it. This has made the landlords and gentry of Henan anxious. No one has cultivated their land. What do they eat and drink?
Therefore, the gentry and landlords from all over Henan are also trying to put pressure on officials at all levels in Henan, asking the government to prevent people from migrating and immigrating.
This matter naturally came to Liu Jian, who was the chief minister of the cabinet and a native of Henan.
"Henan, Shaanxi and Shanxi are my hometown in the Central Plains and my Chinese ancestral land. If there are no people in this Chinese ancestral land, it would be a great disrespect to our ancestors."
"We, the Han people, rose from the Central Plains and have continued to expand to achieve our current territory. This Central Plains is our root and our source, and we must never give up!"
Liu Jian said with some sadness, Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan are the ancestral lands of China and the origin of the Han people, but now, the people in these places are expelling on a large scale, and millions of people are migrating out. The entire
Henan is almost empty.
After hearing Liu Jian's words, Emperor Hongzhi's expression couldn't help but change slightly.
"Is the matter already so serious?"
Emperor Hongzhi frowned and said.
"Your Majesty, the matter may be more serious than what I said. With the loss of a large number of people, the whole of Henan is like a year of famine. The fields are barren, the villages are abandoned, and there is a depression."
Liu Jian nodded solemnly and said.
"Your Majesty, Mr. Liu, I think this is actually a good thing."
At this time, Li Dongyang smiled and said.
"Is this a good thing?"
Liu Jian widened his eyes slightly and looked at Li Dongyang in disbelief.
"Yes, of course this is a good thing!"
Li Dongyang nodded and said: "The large-scale spontaneous immigration from Henan to Liaodong or overseas shows that our immigrants in Liaodong and overseas live a very good life, so we can attract a large number of people to move out. If there are not enough
The attraction will definitely not lead to large-scale spontaneous immigration.”
"You must know that we have always been unable to leave our homeland, and we don't like to move away unless it is forced to move by the imperial court's order."
"Now there is a spontaneous large-scale immigration. This is enough to show that in Liaodong, Nanyang and other regions, the immigrants we moved to live a prosperous life, have no worries about food and clothing, and are full of hope. Otherwise, no one would spontaneously migrate to these areas.
Place to go.”
Li Dongyang was in charge of the resettlement work. When he said this, he naturally wanted to ask for credit from Emperor Hongzhi. Of course, what he said was very reasonable. Emperor Hongzhi, Liu Jian, Zhang Mao and others also nodded their heads after hearing this.
This is not enough benefit. Who is willing to leave their hometown and immigrate?
Immigrants must have lived a good life, so they immigrated with their relatives and friends, which formed a wave of immigrants and led to a large loss of population in Henan.
"What Mr. Li said makes sense~"
"According to the earliest statistical data from our Ministry of Household Affairs, the population of Liaodong and Nanyang provinces has grown very rapidly, and tax revenue has also skyrocketed accordingly. Food production has increased sharply. Immigrants who have moved to these places are living a very prosperous life. They have
own land, livestock and houses.”
"This is enough to show that the immigration policy formulated by His Majesty is very successful."
Ji Zhong, Shangshu of the Ministry of Household Affairs, also followed suit and said that Liaodong has developed rapidly and the tax revenue in the first few months of this year has increased very sharply.
"But here in Henan, all ten rooms are empty!"
After listening to this, Liu Jian said helplessly, "Although this is true, there is no one in Henan anymore. What should we do?"
"This is not a good thing anyway!"
"Mr. Liu, of course this is a good thing."
"Take the Lin County that Liu Gong just mentioned as an example. As far as I know, Lin County is the poorest place in the whole of Henan. Lin County is very droughty, with nine droughts in ten years and severe droughts in consecutive years. Let alone growing food.
Sometimes even the water a person drinks is precious."
"The people in Lin County are very poor. They can't even drink water when they stay here in Lin County. But after moving to Liaodong, they not only have their own fertile land, but also live a prosperous life. Do you think this is a good thing?"
"Places like Lin County are actually no longer suitable for survival. The environment is too harsh. Living in a place like Lin County, no matter how hard you work, is useless, because hard work is not enough to feed yourself, and you can't even drink water.
, in such a place, all the people should be moved to places with better environment."
"The people who spontaneously migrated out are all poor people in Henan. In Henan, they can only farm land for landlords. And because there are so many people and so little land, they often rent very little land, and the exploitation by landlords is very serious.
"
"But by migrating to Liaodong and Nanyang, they can not only own their own land, but also the environment in these places is good. They can rely on their own hands to have food and clothing, and live a prosperous life. This is why there are large-scale spontaneous migrations to
The reason for going to Liaodong and Nanyang."
"Liu Gong, do you think this is a good thing?"
"Does it mean that it is a good thing that they must be allowed to live in Henan, where people are crowded with people, people oppress people, endure exploitation and oppression by landlords, and work so hard that they don't even have enough to eat?"
Li Dongyang's words point directly to the essence of this matter. In the final analysis, it is because he has moved out and can live an easier and better life. He can have enough food and clothing, but he can't even eat enough when he stays in Henan.
Naturally, as the man walked to higher ground, the water flowed to the lower ground.