Li Xingchen sighed. It was his fault that he had pacified the south first, otherwise the wars alone would have depleted him. However, relying on three crops of rice a year was not a long-lasting solution, so it seemed that he had better hurry up.
Dig through the Silk Road and see if you can find potatoes.
The population of the Han Dynasty is growing rapidly. Of course, this growth also relies on the secretiveness of the population by the aristocratic families to a certain extent. After all, there are many private tribes of the aristocratic families that are generally not counted in the population. Their life and death
They are all related to the aristocratic families and have nothing to do with the imperial court, so even if the imperial court is not at war sometimes, the population is also decreasing, mainly because they don't know where they have been tossed by the aristocratic families.
Now that the family fortunes of the aristocratic families have been uncovered by Li Xingchen, these people who originally had no household registration and were not even included in the imperial census will naturally appear on Dahan's new household registration, plus those Ba people who came down from the mountains.
, the Southern Barbarians, the Lingnan tribes, and the Han people cannot even think about increasing their population.
What's more, in the past few years, there has been great peace within the Han Dynasty. Coupled with the improvement of medical standards, the people naturally gave birth without hesitation, and the number of newborns in the Han Dynasty was also growing rapidly.
Originally, Li Xinchen's biggest headache was that the Han Dynasty's population was too small. A small population meant that he would always be at a disadvantage in the competition with the Northern Zhou Dynasty. But now Li Xinchen had to worry about too many people. Can he feed so many people?
In history, famines also occurred during the prosperous times of various dynasties. Even in Li Xingchen's view, famines during the prosperous times of a dynasty are the most terrifying. Prosperity often means a large increase in population. When a famine occurs at this time, the population
At a nearly saturated level, the court had little room for maneuver. Only by starving to death a group of people, or even a large number of people, could the trend of starving to death be curbed. Secondly, once the court was unable to do anything, the people would naturally rise up.
, prosperous times are likely to turn into troubled times in the blink of an eye.
Without the support of the grassroots people and even middle-level local officials, a court would fall apart in a blink of an eye, such as the Tang Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty.
Often powerful barriers are broken from within. The prosperous Tang Dynasty turned from prosperity to decline due to the An-Shi Rebellion, and completely declined due to the Huangchao Rebellion. Not to mention the Ming Dynasty, which was turned upside down by Li Zicheng and others. In the end, Manchuria was advantaged in vain.
clear.
Li Xingchen didn't want his big man to reach that point.
Population growth is really painful and happy.
Fortunately, the Han Dynasty is relatively stable internally, and God has been more generous in recent years.
Otherwise, given the current situation where most of the grain stored in the Han Dynasty is used for war, if any major disaster really occurs, it will be almost fatal.
Li Xingchen said in a deep voice: "Money and food have never been separated, but I can also understand the difficulties of your household department. If you need to take out the food department and set up a department, you can discuss it internally first."
Yu De was startled. Your Majesty is planning to give up the household to some families?
The Household Department may not have the most real power among the six departments. In fact, each of the six departments manages a separate department, and no one can order or oppress the other departments. They all complement each other, but the Household Department is indeed the busiest among the six departments.
If nothing else, the Ministry of Husbandry is actually responsible for food and money. In other words, the Ministry of Husbandry actually also takes over the responsibilities of the chief agricultural officer. Of course, this also makes the Ministry of Husbandry one of the six departments.
It is the department with the largest manpower and the largest scale.
In fact, within the Household Department, money and food are divided into two departments. They are two departments that operate independently. However, when one side has difficulties, the manpower from the other side can be transferred to it in time. Internal transfer is better than cross-department transfer.
Conveniently, the Shangshu and the two ministers at the top of the household department actually have their own responsibilities. The two ministers are each responsible for a part, and they are finally handed over to the minister for summary.
It's just that Yu De came with him. Although he was originally in charge of food, after all, he was not the minister outside but represented the entire household department, so he was also responsible for the money. Therefore, now the internal division of labor in the household department is actually Yu De's.
He was responsible for the money and grain in the north, while Chen Shushen, who was in charge of Jiankang Prefecture, was in charge of the money and grain in the south.
As the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, Yu De certainly knows that it is very convenient for money and food to be under one department now. But he also knows that the Ministry of Revenue is in charge of the lifeblood resources of these two countries, and is actually slightly higher than the other departments. The other departments
Even if the Five Departments didn't say it, they were already dissatisfied in their hearts. It was obviously necessary to split the Household Department.
Money and food are the lifeblood of the country, but they are also a hot potato.
Only by splitting up the household department will it not be so easy to be hostile.
"I will discuss this matter with the Minister." Yu De said hurriedly, and at the same time expressed his position quickly, "I think this matter is necessary. Now there are many people in the Ministry of Household Affairs, and the management has not changed. Moreover, things are complicated, and the ministers are superficial.
I often feel powerless and unfulfilled, and worry day and night that I will fail His Majesty's trust. If I can separate out part of it, I can feel at ease."
Li Xingchen nodded.
Yu De is very wise.
As for Jiankang Mansion's own brother-in-law, he is definitely better.
Even if he doesn't follow the path, his sister will let him follow the path, and Li Xingchen is very confident about this.
My main palace is very smart.
Since Yang Su had sent people to ask for an audience, Li Xingchen definitely had to express his feelings.
After Yu De and others retreated, Li Xingchen personally visited the Taiwei Mansion.
The staff officers of the Taiwei Mansion were debating fiercely on the war plan in Hedong.
The Battle of Pingcheng went on faster than expected, disrupting all the previous arrangements of the Taiwei Mansion. They had no choice but to think that this guy Li Jing actually brought such a big surprise to everyone.
Everyone was not worried because the battle plan was completely disrupted. On the contrary, everyone was very excited. What role could the Xianbei cavalry play with their broken backs? The pressure on the Han side in the Hedong battle would be even less.
Indeed, the dark clouds parted and everyone felt relieved.
If it weren't for the fact that the Han Dynasty was really short of money and food, these guys in the Taiwei Mansion would even dare to gear up and plan to attack Jinyang and Yecheng, and even attack across the board and directly bulldoze the Northern Zhou Dynasty.
With Yang Su at the top and Li Xinchen as the final check, these guys have always been very courageous.
Even if we give them 30,000 people, they really dare to plan to attack Jinyang.
Li Xingchen already knew about Pingcheng, or to be precise the beginning and end of the Battle of Bailangdui. He was also a little surprised by Li Jing's tactics. It was not because Li Xingchen didn't think of it, but because this tactic was simply the same as Li Jing's surprise attack on the Turks on a snowy night in history.
A replica of the Battle of the North.
The same snowy night, the same unsuspecting cavalry, the same surprise attack.
Li Xingchen can only say that genius does not lie in his youth.