Chapter 979 Adhere to immigration for a hundred years and not waver!
The Immigration and Reclamation Department encountered not one or two troubles, but many. The first was the problem of funding. Although Li Xuan had already formulated a huge financial budget for the next few years, totaling ten million taels of silver,
It is used to specifically support the resettlement and reclamation work.
But the money seems to be a lot, but in fact it is not enough.
Think about it, the immigration plan of the Immigration and Reclamation Division is not for tens of thousands of people, but a huge immigration plan with a scale of more than one million people or even more. Otherwise, why would Li Xuan prepare 10 million people!
Since he spent 10 million, he will see huge results!
Calculated on average, the financial subsidy an immigrant can receive is actually only a few taels of silver!
Then, don’t think that all this money will be directly distributed to the immigrants. How can such a good thing happen? In fact, a large part of the 10 million taels of silver will be used to purchase land to resettle the immigrants and build simple resettlement houses for the new immigrants.
, prepare early rations for them, prepare farm tools, cattle, seeds and other things.
Among them, building houses, preparing rations, farm tools, cattle and seeds, and some expenses on the road are not a few.
Relatively speaking, the cost of purchasing land only accounts for a very small part.
Maybe you still have questions, why do you need to purchase land when you go to barren mountains and forests to cultivate land?
What else?
All this land is owned by an owner. How can we resettle the immigrants if we don’t buy it?
Although the land used to resettle immigrants will all be wasteland, these days even the land in the barren mountains and forests has an owner. If it does not belong to a private person, then it belongs to the government!
At present, the Tang Dynasty government is the largest landowner in the Datang Dynasty. They have accepted all the clan lands in the former Ming Dynasty, most of the land, official fields, etc. from the families of high-ranking officials in the former Ming Dynasty, making the current Datang Dynasty government own
It accounts for about 30% of all the cultivated land in the area currently ruled by the Tang Dynasty.
Not to mention the wasteland, which is all owned by the government!
The wastelands where immigrants are resettled may seem like deserted areas without human habitation, but don’t think that these wastelands are ownerless. Except for land with clear private ownership, other lands, lakes, oceans, rivers, etc. are all owned by the government.
So even if you run into the deep mountains and old forests, and there is not a single person for thousands of miles around, you can't just draw a circle and say that this place is yours!
This place belongs to the government!
Or to use a more accurate description, even if you have land with a title deed, it is not yours, so whose land belongs to you?
It’s the Holy Emperor!
All the land in the world is the land of the king, and the shores of the land are the royal ministers. Not to mention the land under your name, even you yourself, it all belongs to the emperor!
In the laws revised by the Tang Dynasty, this sentence was written seriously, and with this, the Holy Emperor, who is bright and great and greater than the sun, declares to all known and unknown lands and peoples
Take ownership!
Maybe this explanation is not easy to understand, but to put it simply: even if it is a land that you imagine but does not really exist, it belongs to the Holy Emperor, and the people there also belong to the subjects of the Holy Emperor!
When you understand the meaning of the sentence that under the law of the Tang Dynasty, the whole world is not the king's land, and the land is not the king's ministers, then you will understand why the Datang Dynasty Royal Publishing House published a map of the territory of the Tang Dynasty.
, there are only provincial boundaries and regional boundaries, but there are no national boundaries. You will also understand why the areas outside the provinces of the Tang Dynasty today are largely blank.
Because if you draw national boundaries, you basically deny this statement. How dare you say that Europe, Southeast Asia, America, Africa, and even the entire earth do not belong to the emperor?
If you dare to think so, it is tantamount to denying the sanctity of the Emperor. This is a huge political mistake and absolutely intolerable.
In this context, even those barren mountains and forests belong to the government, so in order to resettle immigrants, it is necessary to spend money to purchase land from the government.
Of course, this price is very low. According to regulations, new immigrants can purchase a designated amount of wasteland in officially owned wasteland for a symbolic price of a few pennies, and these wastelands are produced with the help of the Immigration and Reclamation Department.
money.
To accommodate so many immigrants, a lot of land is needed, but the total cost in this regard will not exceed one hundred thousand taels of silver.
However, when immigrants purchase wasteland at such a low price, there is a quantitative limit. If the quantity limit is exceeded, although the purchase is allowed, it will need to be purchased at the normal market price.
At the same time, if you reclaim these wastelands, you can also get tax benefits from the reclamation order.
Land matters are easy to solve, but farming cattle, farm tools and seeds are difficult to solve. In the sixth year of Xuanping, the Immigration and Reclamation Division received 1.2 million taels of silver, but it was still far from enough. Due to the scale of immigration
It is too big, and the Immigration and Reclamation Department cannot even provide every immigrant household with a free house, let alone cattle, and even farm tools are relatively scarce.
After many immigrants arrived in the local area, although they received free land directly distributed by the government, and the amount was not small, the difficulty of opening up wasteland was too great. In the absence of cattle and high-quality metal farm tools, many immigrant families
The whole family, young and old, went to work and cleared the fields every day. However, it was still difficult to clear too much wasteland.
It is difficult to open up wasteland, which means that there will be insufficient food to harvest next year. Although these immigrants have tax exemptions for the first three years, even so, the food they planted in the first year is not enough even for themselves.
In addition to its own shortage of supplies, the Immigration and Reclamation Division also reported two other problems. One is that the acclimatization and soil conditions are not suitable for the immigrants. The casualty rate has remained high on the road and after arriving at the destination.
The immigrants who moved to Hunan from the traditional Central Plains area with more people and less land, that is, northern Anhui, Henan, Shandong and other areas, are better off. Although there are some acclimatization, it is not too troublesome, but the immigrants who moved to the Guangdong and Guangxi areas are
It is difficult to adapt to the local climate. Not only are they not accustomed to the local climate, but also because immigrants generally lack medical care and medicine, the casualty rate is quite high.
Finally, there is a more important question: it’s hard to leave your homeland!
When they were recruiting immigrants, many of them were unwilling to leave their hometowns and go thousands or even thousands of miles away to open up wasteland.
Even if land is given to them after they arrive, even if the Immigration and Reclamation Department sends them to their destination, they don't have to spend a penny on the way.
Even though these people live in poverty in their hometowns, have no land of their own, and have difficulty feeding themselves, they are still full of fear of the distant place and are unwilling to leave their familiar hometown.
It can be said that Li Xuan takes these issues raised by the Immigration and Reclamation Department very seriously!
After immigrating to a place, life is difficult and land reclamation is difficult. The best solution to this problem is naturally to increase expenditures. If you have money, everything can be done easily, but finances are limited and money is needed in all aspects. Naturally, it is impossible to increase immigration.
Investment can increase.
Since it was impossible for the central government to increase funding, Li Xuan felt that it was necessary for local government agencies to fully assume their responsibilities. They could not rely on central government funding for everything. Local government agencies also needed to have money and strength to contribute.
Especially the two levels of local government that accept immigrants and organize immigrants. When organizing immigrants, the local government needs to provide necessary financial support. After all, organized immigrants go to other places to reclaim wasteland, which puts pressure on the local population and food.
It is also a great relief, and it is natural to pay some price for it.
This is especially true for places that accept immigrants. A large group of immigrants have come to you, and they will become the people in your jurisdiction from now on. You can't just ignore them.
Immigration should actually be a matter that should be led by the central government and assisted by local governments. Nowadays, it is good that the Immigration and Reclamation Division has taken care of everything. The local government is watching the show on the side, as if it has nothing to do with it.
This situation cannot continue like this!
There is no solution to the problem of acclimatization. Who made China so big? The climate environment in the Central Plains and the southern region is naturally very different. The only thing that can be done is to provide medicine as much as possible.
The provision of medicine is also inseparable from the support of the local government. Otherwise, even if Li Xuan sends out all the imperial doctors, it will not be enough.
Is it difficult to leave homeland in the end? This is not a big problem in Li Xuan’s opinion!
It’s all nonsense to say that it’s hard to leave one’s homeland!
People move to higher places, and water flows to lower places; people move to live, and trees move to death!
Being unwilling to leave your hometown and go to a new place to make a living when you are in poverty is nothing more than cowardice!
Just like after the reform and opening up in later generations, some people are willing to go out, see the outside world, and fight for their future, while some people are full of fear of the outside world, fearing that they will not know how to face it if they go out!
Therefore, Li Xuan has nothing to say about this situation, love it or not, don't pull it down!
As long as the Immigration and Reclamation Division does a good job in publicity and guidance, Datang Chao Bao will also cooperate to a certain extent when necessary, so there is no need to react too much.
In places with more people and less land, if there are more landless farmers, there will always be people who are willing to go to a new place to start a new life, and some people are unwilling to leave their hometown, so they will not leave. It is not like there is no one in the world.
No more transfer, Li Xuan didn’t say that he wanted to immigrate all the population of a certain place!
There were so many places under the rule of the Tang Dynasty. There were many places with a lot of people and little land, and there were also many places with a few people and a lot of land. At present, enough immigrants and wastelands can always be found. Some people cannot leave their hometown.
Willing to immigrate is actually not a big issue.
Regarding the many problems of the Immigration and Reclamation Department, Li Xuan held a special imperial cabinet meeting on the imperial ship on the way to Hanyang and made important instructions: all departments in the capital and local yamen should regard immigration matters as a century-old plan for the empire's future.
Do it!
Finally, he reiterated the tone of his immigration policy, which is: insist on immigration for a hundred years without wavering!
Li Xuan convened an imperial cabinet meeting specifically for this immigration matter, and also directly emphasized a certain argument in the imperial cabinet meeting, which was rare.
But every time this happens, the ministers know that the Holy Emperor takes this matter very seriously!
If the Holy Emperor takes it seriously, his ministers will naturally pay more attention to it and will move forward along the path pointed out by the Holy Emperor!
So it didn’t take long for the latest issue of the Tang Dynasty Newspaper to see the big black headline on the front page, which was the exact words of Emperor Sheng at the cabinet meeting: Insist on immigration for a hundred years without wavering!