The first thousand five hundred and sixty-sixth section The pressure brought about by the population
Weiyang Palace, Qingliang Hall, the summer residence of the Emperor. .
Liu Che stood in the courtyard, watching the gurgling water from Shiqu Pavilion flowing in front of him.
The river water drawn from Shanglin Garden is clean and clear, and can even be drunk directly.
But Liu Che's thoughts drifted to Anton.
Just now, he received a memorial from Anton.
General Li Guang wrote a letter requesting to expand the scale of shipping ships to transport the remaining grain of the Andong Reclamation Regiment as soon as possible.
Regarding this matter, Liu Che had already issued an edict to the Louzhou General Yamen, ordering Xu Han to immediately mobilize ships and go to Anton for transshipment.
At the same time, Liu Che also ordered the General Office of the Building Ships to speed up shipbuilding and build a transport fleet capable of transporting one million shi of grain at a time within three years to meet the world's shipping needs.
This is something that must be done urgently.
because……
Liu Che suddenly discovered that the Han Empire had begun to face food shortages.
An obvious fact is that grain prices in Guanzhong have increased by 20% this year compared with last year.
The price of corn has risen to sixty cents per stone, the price of wheat flour has risen to one hundred and ten cents per stone, and the price of rice has also risen to fifty cents.
However, the world's grain production has increased for eight consecutive years.
Especially in the Guanzhong area, the average yield per mu has more than doubled compared to the time of the late emperor!
However, food prices have been unable to be lowered, and there has been an abnormal increase this year.
This is very unusual!
Liu Che immediately became vigilant.
Under the control of Shaofu, Da Nong, Jing Zhaoyin and other yamen, the grain price protection policy has been effectively implemented.
Stabilizing food prices to stabilize people's livelihood has gradually become a national policy.
Today, this policy not only covers the entire Guanzhong.
It also extended to the Sanhe area, Liang State and the vast north.
Starting from this year, Qi State will also implement this policy.
Those responsible for implementing this policy are also reliable officials selected by Liu Che.
The ministers of Lantai will also take turns to go to various places to supervise and inspect.
Therefore, the possibility of someone causing trouble is basically ruled out.
The only possible reason that remains is that people's food consumption is increasing dramatically! And people's food consumption is exceeding the rate of food production increase at full speed.
Otherwise, it would be impossible for food prices to fluctuate abnormally.
Take a peek and get the whole picture.
If this is the case in Guanzhong, it is inevitable that the world will be the same.
"A half-grown child, a poor man..." Liu Che also sighed, quite helpless. He had already foreseen this situation.
Since the Yuan Dynasty, the largest increase in the world has naturally been the population.
Especially Guanzhong, Sanhe and northern counties.
The population grows like a balloon.
This is not only because Liu Che encouraged childbearing, but also because of his continuous victory in foreign wars.
The young people who won the war and received military honors and military honors kept marrying wives and concubines, and then rushed to create humans.
The big bosses of Confucianism, Legalism, Huang Lao, etc. are constantly clamoring among the people to have more children, spread their branches and spread their leaves, and multiply, which is to serve the king and father, be filial to parents, and repay the morality of the ancestors.
As a result, fertility competition among the people began.
A man who has only one heir cannot lift his head even when he goes out.
Two or three people are not a real man.
The standard for a real man is to have at least five children before the age of thirty!
If a person can give birth to more than ten children, he will have more face when he goes out! He will be respected by his neighbors and looked down upon by officials. Even the knights and knights. If he is arrested for breaking the law, if he has more than ten children, then the local
Officials may even be arrogant and let him off the hook. If such a fertility model is rashly sent to prison, it is a loss for society and a loss for the people!
In this social environment, there are more and more newborns every year.
The population of the Han Empire is getting younger and younger.
Today in the world, people born after the first year of Yuande account for almost 30% of the total population...
Horrible! Horrible!
The first batch of baby boomers are now seven or eight years old.
Their appetite is growing day by day, and the stable social environment and good economic situation allow them to naturally get and enjoy more than their brothers, sisters, uncles.
At the very least, food and clothing are much better than their predecessors.
A group of children who open their bellies and eat whatever they want ask you if you are afraid?
In particular, today is a feudal society before the Christian era.
What Liu Che once feared at the beginning is now becoming a reality.
The children who are waiting to be fed are eager and urging their king and country to find more resources for their growth and development.
The sword of the Han Empire must find more satiating food for the stomachs of its people.
Fortunately...
There is a lot of food surplus in the Andong region. As long as it can all be transported out, it can temporarily satisfy these children who are waiting to be fed.
However, in another five years, the potential of the Yuande generation will be unleashed.
The grain output of an Anton may not be able to satisfy these people.
After all, by that time, the number of people Liu Che has to feed may be as high as 70 million!
Ten years from now, this number is likely to soar to 80 million!
Twenty years later, it is very likely to exceed 100 million!
With a population of 100 million, based on the current social productivity and technological level, the amount of cultivated land required far exceeds the amount of cultivated land currently owned by the Han Dynasty.
A simple mathematical calculation can tell Liu Che this fact.
Because an adult needs to eat at least one stone and a half of food a month (this is the food consumption of farmers during the Warring States Period, which is considered the most basic need).
A population of 100 million will consume at least 60 million shi of food per month (this is already the minimum consumption).
According to the most optimistic calculation, the average yield per mu in the world is four stones.
More than 10 million acres of land are needed to meet this demand.
And this is only for one month.
For twelve months a year, the Han Empire needed more than 140 million acres of arable land to raise its people.
And now the number of registered acres of land in the world, including the Andong region, is only over 70 million acres.
Although the Andong region can continue to reclaim wasteland and increase the arable area by 30 million acres in the next twenty years.
At the same time, counties and states across the world can continue to reclaim tens of millions of acres of wasteland (the excavation of the Grand Canal can accelerate the development of Jiangnan, thereby releasing huge energy).
However, the food gap is still huge.
A conservative estimate, based on the current situation, is that in twenty years the Han Dynasty's food gap will probably reach more than 40 million shi!
This means that tens of millions of people will fall into famine in twenty years.
This only counts the Han mainland and does not include the additional vassal states (such as Mitsukoshi and the Southwest).
If these areas are included, the gap is even larger.
"Time is not waiting for me, we must accelerate external expansion and immigration!" Liu Che told himself that the pressure of population will force him and his country to continue to expand externally, and in the next twenty years, at least a population of more than five million will have to be expanded.
Send out the Great Wall and send it to Hexi, Munan and the Western Regions.
Otherwise, the population pressure and food shortage alone may crush the Han Empire to death.
Therefore, within twenty years, the Han Dynasty must eliminate the Xiongnu and control the Western Regions. At the same time, it must extend its power to Central Asia and open up transportation roads leading to Shendu.
This is a dead goal, it cannot be changed or postponed!
The strategy, expansion, and development of the entire empire must be re-planned and planned according to this time!
