A group of officials passed Dayu Ridge and got off the boat from Nanxiong.
The leader is Zhang Zongyuan, who previously participated in politics in Jiangxi Province. Now he has gone to Jambi to take over the post of governor. The newly captured Coconut City by the imperial court is also under his control.
From the Straits of Malacca to West Java, everything falls under the jurisdiction of the Governor's Palace of Jambi.
The South China Sea Navy will also be split this time. The waters of the Governor's Palace in Jambi will be separated and a Malacca Navy will be added. In fact, the number of the navy has not changed much, only two warships have been added.
The total number of Ming Dynasty naval ships is not large. Excluding those small offshore ships, the total number of medium-sized and large warships is only 73.
For example, the East China Sea Navy branch in Taiwan has only one medium-sized warship, and the rest are all small offshore ships.
After taking a boat through Shaozhou (Shaoguan) and passing by Yingzhou (Yingde), Zhang Zongyuan was very surprised: "The last time I came here, I was still a young man. At that time, the countryside of Yingzhou was in decline, and now there is constant smoke along the coast."
The official who was transferred to the Jambi Governor's Mansion as the third-in-command was named Zong Wu. He was born in the second generation of Jinshi in the Ming Dynasty and had previously served as the prefect of Hubei.
Zong Wu said with a smile: "My hometown is in Sihui. I have gone back twice in the past few years. Every time I pass through Yingzhou, the number of villages along the coast will increase. Not only the counties along the river, but also the population in the mountainous areas of Guangdong is changing.
many."
"This is a prosperous time!" Zhang Zongyuan was quite happy.
Historically, Yue Fei was so angry that Zhao Gou abandoned him, so Zhang Zongyuan was sent to temporarily take charge of the Yue family's army and investigate Yue Fei's various illegal activities.
Zhang Zongyuan had heard many rumors and was deeply prejudiced against Yue Fei. But when he actually arrived in the army, he found that the Yue family soldiers were panic-stricken, so he conducted an investigation himself, and immediately helped Yue Fei put in a good word, which slightly eased the conflict between Yue Fei and Zhao Gou.
.
After taking a break at Yingzhou Station, Zhang Zongyuan said to Zong Wu: "During the former Song Dynasty, Yingzhou was becoming increasingly desolate. At that time, I got off the boat halfway and visited a village by the river, and found that many houses were abandoned."
Zong Wu said: "The government imposed excessive taxes and the peasants were having a hard time, so they simply fled with their families to Guangzhou to seek life. How could the countryside not be in decline?"
According to official statistics, in the late Northern Song Dynasty, Guangdong had less than 450,000 households and less than 700,000 people.
More than 30% of the province’s household registrations are concentrated in Guangzhou!
In comparison, Fujian's official household registration data is more than three times that of Guangdong, which shows how serious the contradiction between man and land was in Fujian during the Song Dynasty.
Regardless of whether it is Guangdong or Fujian, no one can say exactly how many living people there are.
After the Ming Dynasty court allocated land to farmers, the common people found that they no longer had to pay poll taxes, and all kinds of taxes and servitudes were cancelled. Moreover, as long as they had household registration, they could obtain land deeds for the mountainous land they reclaimed, so they took the initiative to go to the government
Come and register an account.
In just a few years, the official population has reached 3.08 million, and the population of Guangzhou accounts for about 20% of the province.
Moreover, this data does not include minors under the age of 15, nor does it include ethnic minorities in the mountains - such as some Yao people in Guangdong, who are still in the era of slash-and-burn farming.
More than ten years have passed. Although Guangdong people are constantly being recruited overseas, the population of Guangdong Province has still increased to more than 3.8 million.
Some ethnic minorities in the mountains were also lured to the mountains. After they were officially registered, agricultural officers taught them more advanced farming techniques.
There are still a large number of undeveloped mountainous areas in the province, and the promotion of sweet potatoes and corn has greatly accelerated the development progress of Guangdong's mountainous areas.
Especially in the Dongjiang River Basin and Hanjiang River Basin, there was less than one household per square kilometer in the Tang Dynasty, and it slowly developed in the Northern Song Dynasty. Nowadays, due to the popularity of sweet potatoes and corn, as well as the government's policy of encouraging land reclamation, the annual population growth rate is extremely high.
There were even landless farmers from Guangzhou Prefecture who moved there.
Zhang Zongyuan was walking from the pier to the city. When he saw an old man who looked like a farmer walking towards the suburbs, he immediately went up to chat: "You are leaving the city so late. Do you live in the suburbs?"
The farmer didn't understand the official language well, and seeing that Zhang Zongyuan was very energetic and had several followers around him, he immediately stood there uneasy.
Zong Wu was from Guangdong, so he had to work part-time as a translator.
The farmer replied: "This gentleman lives dozens of miles away. He travels in the dark at night and can go home tomorrow morning."
"Is your home far from the river?" Zhang Zongyuan asked.
The farmer said: "It's not far away. You can also go back by boat. You can save the boat money by walking."
Zhang Zongyuan asked again: "Come to the city to sell things?"
The farmer said: "We also have a town over there, but we can't sell them for a price. We can earn more by coming to the city. Small people come to the city to sell some dried sweet potatoes, herbs collected in the mountains, and a few hare skins."
"How many people are there in the family?"
"There are seven of them including the children."
"How many acres?"
"More than eighty acres are all mountainous land cultivated by myself. There are more than thirty acres that have not yet been fully cultivated, and we cannot harvest much grain. It will be better in a few years if they are fully cultivated."
"There are only seven children, so it's very hard to farm so much land."
"It's nothing to be tired. As long as the fields are cultivated, the government will issue land deeds. When my son gets a few years older, it will be much easier."
"How old are you Gui Geng this year?"
"Thirty-one."
"It looks like it's been really hard work, and he has aged like fifty years old."
"I can't compare myself with my husband."
"There is a village school in the village, and is there a teacher?" "Our village has been moved to reclaim wasteland in the past ten years. There are not many villagers, so where can we find a teacher?"
"It will be there in a few years."
"Hehehe."
After the small talk, the farmer left carrying the empty basket.
It's not all empty. There are two feet of floral cloth and one foot of blue cloth in the basket. I also bought some salt.
This old young farmer walked briskly and even hummed an unknown slang song. He was not depressed at all because of the hardship of life, but was overjoyed because he sold agricultural and sideline products.
Zhang Zongyuan looked at the farmer's back and remained silent for a long time, not knowing what he was thinking.
Arriving in Guangzhou is a different story.
Most of the prefectures and counties in Guangdong are very poor, but Guangzhou Prefecture is incredibly prosperous.
When Zhang Zongyuan stopped by to visit the officials of the Third Division of Guangdong, he learned that the first batch of Fujian immigrants had arrived. A total of 3,000 people were waiting to take a boat to enrich the newly occupied West Java.
There will be two more batches to follow, a total of 8,000 Fujian immigrants will be sent there.
Fujian's population exploded during the Northern Song Dynasty, and migration continued after the founding of the Ming Dynasty. However, as long as life was good, the fertility rate remained high, and Fujian's population did not decline much due to migration.
In fact, Huainan and Zhejiang are similar. With the end of the war, the population is increasing. The imperial court organizes migration every five years. It does not enforce it, but allows the people to sign up on their own to go to Youyan, Liaodong, and the Ming Dynasty in Japan.
Overseas relocation.
The Central Plains moved to the northwest, and Sichuan moved to western and southern Sichuan.
…
“So many immigrants!”
Wang Chongdu looked across the river at the Fujian immigrants temporarily resettled on the island, and wished they could all be taken to Australia to pan for gold.
After all, the semi-official personnel supported by the royal family in private are not as good as the real government.
There was no news about whether the Sunda Kingdom was destroyed, and the first batch of immigrants who moved there had already arrived in Guangzhou. In comparison, Wang Chongdu was just a small fuss.
Li Bin muttered: "Those officials in Huizhou refused to allow me to take away too many gold diggers, and they actually arranged for the officials to set up checkpoints in the river to intercept them."
"It would be nice to be able to take people away. You made too much trouble in Huizhou this time." Gao Wenbao said with a smile.
Huizhou, where Heyuan County is located, has a larger population than northern Guangdong due to its earlier development, but it certainly cannot compare with Fujian, which has a fierce conflict between people and land.
Li Bin led people to escort Zhang Guan home, who had picked up the gold nugget. He beat gongs and drums at the inns along the way to spread the word. The news had already spread before he returned to Heyuan County.
Li Bin was afraid that it would not be sensational enough, so he directly promoted that Zhang Guan's nugget gold had been sold for 5,000 pieces!
As a result, people from various counties in Huizhou Prefecture kept coming to inquire about the situation, and they all wanted to go to Australia to make gold.
In an era when the imperial court encouraged immigrants, the increase in the population within the jurisdiction did not highlight political achievements. Anyway, it was already divided into acres. How many more taxes could be collected no matter how much the population was? Now what is more important is the increase in cultivated land area and the increase in industrial and commercial tax revenue.
rise.
Only in those states and counties where there are too many foreign ethnic groups and need to accept Han immigrants, population growth will have a high proportion in the performance evaluation.
A detailed analysis of specific issues shows that in prefectures and counties that are already densely populated and need to return farmland to lakes, even the increase in cultivated land area is not included in the political achievements.
The assessment standards for local officials in the Ming Dynasty were very flexible.
But I couldn't stand the sensation this time.
A poor, honest farmer got "five thousand dollars" in one trip to Australia. Others would naturally think that I could become rich too!
The prefect of Huizhou was alerted and dispatched officers to set up interceptors.
After much talk, Li Bin was finally allowed to take away 300 people from Huizhou, and the rest were sent back to their respective villages by officials.
At this time, a doctor was speaking to three thousand Fujian immigrants on the island.
"When you go to West Java, be careful to drink more hot water. Especially when it rains all the time, drink more hot water, preferably sugar water and salt water. You can also make porridge and drink it. Don't be too tired when farming, don't be like you
I worked so hard when I was in Fujian. As I said before, drink more hot water when you sweat. The salt there is cheap, and you can also grow your own sugar cane and add salt and sugar to the water to drink."
"Don't take my words seriously. This is a lesson learned by those previous immigrants who sacrificed their lives. Some people were assigned a lot of land, and there were obviously indigenous tenants to help cultivate it, but they had to go to the fields and work hard. Keep working,
Someone died inexplicably!"
"There were soldiers from the Ming Dynasty who opened up the territory. How much land was waiting for immigrants to divide it? You have adapted to the climate and can enjoy the blessings through normal farming. The days to come will definitely get better and better. Don't be in a hurry, and don't be careless!"
"Damn it, if you die too many, even I, a doctor, will suffer!"
The next day, the fleet carrying the first batch of immigrants left the port together with other merchant ships and sailed toward Southeast Asia.
Wang Chongdu's fleet was also among them.
He stood on the deck, looking at the spectacular scenes on the sea, and a high-spirited and heroic feeling arose spontaneously.
Wang Chongdu had read history books. He was vaguely aware of the era he was in, and he actively participated in major historical events.
He wanted to draw his sword and sing loudly, but he only had a waist sword.
