In the autumn of the thirty-sixth year of Xuanping, a Chen Lifu storm arose in the upper echelons of the Tang Empire.
The political turmoil and influence brought about by Chen Lifu's entry into the imperial study were far greater than any previous minister's entry into the imperial study.
Over the years, the Tang Empire has had new ministers join the imperial study every once in a while. The new ministers will always play tricks such as the three tips for new officials to take office. Through some of the ideas they advocate, they try to gain more influence in the empire.
Leave your own traces and make political achievements.
But there is no one like Chen Lifu who has promoted a number of policies within just half a month of taking office.
The three most controversial reforms are only superficial, but in fact what Chen Lifu has done is far more than that.
Some reforms with relatively large constraints still need to be discussed at duty meetings, but some small and medium-sized policies, especially economic development, have less impact. This is Chen Lifu's essential work, and Chen Lifu does not need to consider other duties at all.
Based on the opinions of the ministers, as long as the relevant plan is approved by the Holy Emperor, it can be implemented directly.
In mid-August, as the Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, the fertilizer support plan submitted by Chen Lifu was approved. The plan will exempt guano and other fertilizers imported from mainland China from import tariffs, and provide tax incentives to companies operating guano.
Policies to reduce the cost of guano and expand its use.
The empire's industrial and commercial taxes have never been low, so after the promulgation of this policy, it directly meant that the cost of guano fertilizer imported from the Pacific and South America was reduced by at least 30%.
The reduction in costs has directly stimulated companies to start large-scale mining from other Pacific islands or South America and other regions, transport guano back to the country, and then expand the scope of use.
In order to obtain more sources of guano to increase food production in the local area and solve the problem of food and clothing for the people, Chen Lifu also discussed with the Army and Navy to support the military's limited expansion of some guano production areas in South America.
The military naturally welcomes this kind of thing. Since it supports it, it will definitely spend money on the military.
As long as there is military spending and expansion, the military welcomes it.
This policy may seem inconspicuous, and it did not even arouse much response, but the effect is remarkable. Chen Lifu's report to Li Xuan stated that in the next three years, the amount of guano imported from overseas will increase by
Rapidly expanding by more than ten times, it has been reflected in grain output. Chen Lifu is very optimistic about estimating that in some areas where guano fertilizer is applied on a large scale, such as several major grain-producing areas in coastal areas and the Huguang area, the grain output per mu
It can increase by about 5% in three years.
Although it is only an increase of five percentage points, this is magnified to the entire coastal and central grain-producing areas, and the total increase in grain volume is very huge.
With such an increase in grain production, the government only pays part of the tax revenue, and this part of the tax revenue can still be replenished through other links. For example, if grain production increases, the tax revenue contributed by agriculture will naturally increase accordingly.
.
After careful calculation, the government's fiscal revenue not only did not suffer a loss, but actually made a small profit.
The fertilizer support program is just one of them.
Seeing Chen Lifu working on this fertilizer, Li Xuan also reminded Chen Lifu, saying that the Royal Institute of Technology has synthesized several types of fertilizers and is currently looking for solutions for large-scale mass production.
When Chen Lifu heard this, he directly found the Royal Institute of Technology, and then with a wave of his hand, he directly threw out hundreds of thousands of yuan in scientific research support funds to help several chemical fertilizer research groups continue their research and find ways to mass-produce various chemical fertilizers.
Industrial solutions.
At the same time, Chen Lifu also encouraged grain planting in local areas and encouraged the cultivation of cash crops in local and overseas territories. He balanced crop production by producing food locally and importing cash crops overseas, and prioritized ensuring local food supply.
After all, the current price of food is still relatively low, and the cost of transoceanic transportation is relatively high. If you just grow food on a large scale in the Americas and other regions and then transport it back to your home country, even if it is tariff-free, the freight will still be too expensive.
But if you switch to cash crops with a relatively low yield per mu and a relatively high unit value, the transportation volume will be much smaller, so the freight will be acceptable.
Then he suggested to Emperor Sheng to start a new round of large-scale water conservancy facility construction!
Almost twenty years have passed since the construction of large-scale water conservancy facilities after the end of the Unification War. Although the current water conservancy facilities are countless times more powerful than those in the pre-Ming Dynasty, they are still not enough.
Many areas still suffer from floods or droughts every year.
Similarly, many lands cannot be developed due to lack of water resources, or their yields are limited.
Chen Lifu proposed a new round of large-scale water conservancy facility construction, but the cost of this proposal was too huge, and the issue of funding was troublesome, so Li Xuan did not approve it directly, but handed it over to the emperor.
Study room discussion.
Although the other ministers on duty opposed many of Chen Lifu's ideas, they still supported the expansion of food supply and infrastructure construction. As for the funding issue, they squeezed in here and moved there. The capital and local yamen shared the cost.
That's about it.
Finally, after discussion, a new round of water conservancy facility construction plan was finalized. It is expected that Gyeonggi will directly invest a total of 80 million yuan within five years to support the construction of water conservancy facilities in various places.
This 80 million is only the investment from Gyeonggi Province. As for the investment from each place, it depends on the economic level and construction scale of each place.
However, they are still generally shared together, so in the end, the total investment in infrastructure within five years may exceed 150 million.
This is an extremely huge number!
In order to raise this amount of money, many projects and institutions will have to save money in the next five years.
But he didn't expect that Chen Lifu was not finished yet. The water conservancy facility construction plan had just been passed, and the so-called Nanyang reclamation plan was launched, preparing to immigrate at least 10 million people from across the country to the Nanyang region, especially Siam and Annan.
Settled in the grain-producing areas, and then carried out large-scale reclamation, striving to build the Nanyang Peninsula into the new granary of the empire within five years.
Construct five major grain-producing areas including Jiangnan, Huguang, Central Plains, Liaohe, and Nanyang!
And the cost of such a large-scale official-led resettlement is naturally huge.
The many policies launched by Chen Lifu have only one purpose, which is to ensure the food supply in mainland China and solve the feeding problem of more than 200 million people.