The 19th year of Xuanping was destined to be an unusual year not only for the empire, but also for the whole world!
This year, the Chao News Department under the Ministry of Rites of the Tang Dynasty became the busiest department. Every day, it was worried about how to select the appropriate news from the many big news and put it on the front pages. After all, what news should be
Whatever page it is posted on is a major issue and represents a direct official statement, which cannot be posted indiscriminately.
In the 19th year of Xuanping, many major events broke out at the same time. Of course, the introduction was the large-scale application of trains and ships, etc., but these are just introductions. In the final analysis, what happened in the 19th year of Xuanping
The changes that have occurred are an explosion after the empire's nearly two decades of reform and development in all aspects of politics, military, economy, education, science and technology!
This great change is the inevitable result of historical development!
When the Tang Dynasty rose and carried out many reforms, this kind of thing would inevitably happen!
Now, it’s just for people to see!
In the past few years, people may have been able to feel the changes in the land of China, but the overall feeling was not very obvious. For most people of the empire, in fact, China under the Tang Dynasty was different from the traditional feudal dynasty.
There is not much difference.
The vast majority of people are farmers. They still farm, pay taxes, and serve in the military. And except for a very small number of people, most people still will not leave the villages where they have lived all their lives to see the changes in the world outside.
Those who can truly feel the great changes in China are those living in cities, especially cities in areas with developed industrial and commercial areas, such as Shanghai.
People who work and live in Shanghai should be the most able to feel this huge social change. Countless wastelands have been turned into factories, people from all over the country have flocked in, and Shanghai has become a unique modern city.
In the nineteenth year of Xuanping, even ordinary people could feel that earth-shaking changes were taking place in the land they lived in.
Their feelings may not be too comprehensive, but they will feel it to some extent. For example, as the water conservancy construction enters this year, water conservancy facilities in many places have been completed.
These water conservancy facilities are not all super projects such as the Hongze Lake flood control levee, the Yangtze River, and the Yellow River levee. In fact, they are more of small water conservancy facilities in the countryside, mainly used to irrigate farmland.
After several years of construction, most places have completed the tasks assigned by the superiors and improved the basic water conservancy facilities within the jurisdiction. Maybe some places are just a formality, and some places are not perfect enough, but overall,
This major water conservancy construction project that spread across the country has achieved great results.
The most obvious proof is that during the 19th year of Xuanping, the weather was not smooth across the country. In many places, the rainfall was insufficient, while in some places there were heavy rainstorms. As the empire was so big, there would always be
There are some places where the weather is more or less abnormal.
However, these climate changes did not greatly affect the empire's food production.
According to a report from the Ministry of Agriculture, during the 19th year of Xuanping, no major disaster such as a loss of grain production occurred anywhere in the country. At the same time, due to the popularization of water conservancy facilities, many lower-grade fields were turned into medium-grade fields, and middle-grade fields were transformed into
It became a top-quality field, which further increased food production.
In the 19th year of Xuanping, the "agricultural tax" collected by the Ministry of Taxation will increase by about 5% compared to last year.
Don’t underestimate this five percent. You must know that the empire’s agricultural taxes are basically levied on a fixed basis. Since there is an increase, it means that more cultivated land has been developed, or ordinary lower-grade fields have become higher-grade.
field.
Agricultural taxes are not levied according to the proportion of grain output, but according to the number of acres of land, so this cannot truly reflect changes in grain output.
However, the news fed back by the Datang Grain Corporation is enough to reflect the changes in the empire's grain output.
During the autumn harvest in the 19th year of Xuanping's reign, branches in many provinces under the Datang Grain Corporation urgently sought help from the Corporation.
Why ask for help?
Because branches in various places found that the funds prepared to purchase grain were insufficient!
Datang Grain Corporation, as the largest grain merchant in the Tang Empire, has always firmly implemented the grain price stabilization policy and used measures such as collecting grain and releasing grain to balance grain prices.
This year's grain production has increased a lot. Even though some grain branches have realized that the increase in grain production will lead to a bumper harvest and prepared huge amounts of funds in advance, they still did not expect that grain production would increase to this extent.
Especially in the two provinces of Huguang, data fed back by grain companies show that the grain output in the Huguang area was 20% more than last year. The local population is obviously unable to digest so much grain, and local farmers will use the excess grain.
The food is sold!
Ordinary grain merchants are not fools. They have known for a long time that there will be a bumper grain harvest, but they are still willing to collect grain at last year's price. They are not even willing to collect grain at the lowest price of the grain price range set by the local grain company!
According to their predictions, if this is collected, they will lose as much as they collect!
Ordinary grain merchants did not dare to harvest, and farmers naturally swarmed to carry the grain to the door of the grain company. In order to stabilize grain prices, so that the price of grain does not increase in disaster years and the price of grain does not fall in good years, Datang Grain Corporation
Have you always been determined to collect or distribute grain according to the price range you set, and there is no upper limit?
But with so much grain harvested, there was a big problem with the capital reserves, and in the end we had to ask the head office for help!
Of course, Datang Grain Corporation has a big business and always has countless amounts of grain and cash on hand. Moreover, Datang Grain Corporation is actually very profitable.
When they purchase grain from grain-producing areas, they charge it at a relatively low price range, and when they transport it to grain consumption areas, they often sell it at a higher grain price range. In this process, although the freight is relatively high,
The profit is not high, but it can’t handle the large volume!
Over the years, Datang Grain Corporation has made a lot of money every year. In addition to paying taxes during its operations, it has also handed over a lot of extra profits.
Therefore, even if there is a bumper harvest in the Huguang area, which puts great pressure on the local branch, it is not a big deal in the entire Datang Grain Corporation. After a large amount of funds have been mobilized, the grain purchase continues!
Part of the purchased grain will be transported to other places for sale, especially in areas with food shortages, and part of it will be refined and made into various products. For example, brewing is a major business of Datang Grain Corporation.
In addition, some will be collected into grain reserve warehouses as part of the empire's strategic grain reserves.
Datang Grain Corporation has established many grain storage warehouses across the country. Just the strategic storage warehouse in Jinling City has enough grain to feed hundreds of thousands of people in the entire Jinling City area.
Year!
The increase in grain production is enough to show that the empire's water conservancy construction that has lasted for several years has achieved outstanding results!
When Li Xuan saw the relevant reports from Datang Grain Corporation and other departments, he knew that although the great strategic goal of feeding the people of the country was still far away, there was already a glimmer of hope.
At least, there has been no large-scale famine in the empire in the past few years!
Of course, even if there is no large-scale famine, people in many places still do not have enough to eat.
Li Xuan is very clear about this, but he is also very helpless. In the era without chemical fertilizers and hybrid rice, it is not easy to feed more than 160 million people. As for how to make these 160 million people
Having enough to eat every day, to be honest, is a bit difficult.
At least it cannot be achieved with the current technical capabilities of the Tang Empire.
After all, there is a huge difference between preventing the people of the country from starving to death on a large scale and allowing the people of the country to have enough to eat every day. Even in later generations of China, it was only after entering the 21st century that the people of the country reluctantly
Meet the standard of having enough food.
What's more, since the unification of the empire, without the impact of war, the population growth rate has gradually accelerated in accordance with ancient traditions. This growth rate is even faster than the development rate of arable land.
According to the census just completed by the Ministry of Household Affairs, the population of the empire has reached more than 160 million.
The Ministry of Household Affairs began to conduct a census in the 15th year of Xuanping. However, due to many problems such as transportation and backward communication, it was barely completed until the 19th year of Xuanping. Many of the data were actually not fully prepared. A considerable part of
It relies on speculation and mathematical calculations, which is actually very difficult, especially for population statistics in remote mountainous areas.
Almost all of the 160 million people live in the mainland areas, while the total population living in several overseas territories is less than 500,000, and the total population living in the colonies is only more than 100,000.
Among them, the overseas territory with the largest number of immigrants is Ryukyu Prefecture, with a registered population of about 200,000. However, among these 200,000, more than 100,000 are naturalized Fuso women. The real permanent population is actually not that large, at most.
Just tens of thousands of people.
Fuso women were naturalized in the empire through formal channels, usually in Osumi County, Ryukyu Prefecture. At the same time, these Fuso women only registered here, but lived in the mainland.
Moreover, many people have actually moved their household registration to the place where their husbands are in China or to other areas in the country. These more than 100,000 are just Fuso women whose household registration remains in Osumi County.
Over the years, the total number of Fusang women who have been naturalized in the Tang Empire through various channels should have exceeded 300,000.
These 300,000 people are almost all young women of childbearing age, causing many singles in the country to shout long live the empire!