Chapter 636 Fight the Eight Banners and Divide the Field
If Qianlong was present, he would most likely have ordered the old peasants to be beheaded, and the entire family to be beheaded. The reason was that comparing grain production with officials' hair, wouldn't this be a curse on the Qing Dynasty and its elegant government?
If there is no grain production this year, does that mean that the Qing Dynasty will be destroyed if the braids are gone?
There is a high probability that the fourth devil can do this, because the old guy is a little obsessed, and even people who claim to be ancient and rare have been killed.
No matter what words are added in front of the character Qing except for a big character, they will be beheaded without any discussion.
But even if Qianlong was not present, someone else would definitely not be happy if he were.
After all, the metaphor of the old farmer is a bit excessive.
Apart from the long-haired thieves in Huguang, who has more hair these days?
But who is Jia Liu?
Let alone the tuft of hair on his head, I don't mind comparing it to other parts of his head.
Maybe I am still complacent because I have more hair elsewhere than on my head.
Damn, it's natural curls, like England's.
The problem is very serious and the situation is very serious!
The old farmer obviously means that this year's autumn grain harvest will not be good. The reason is that the weather has been hot since May, causing most crops, including rice, to be affected and unable to bear fruit and pulp.
In some places, there was even no harvest due to drought.
Last year, there was a large-scale flood disaster in Gyeonggi. At that time, Jia Liu personally led people to fight on the front line of Dongling to fight the flood. For this reason, his deeds were praised by Yong Rong, the sixth son of Qianlong. Later, he was appointed as the director of the management committee.
Jia Tulu came out of the mountain again, and became famous in the world by pacifying the religious rebellion, and by accident, he became one of the three giants of the Qing Dynasty.
Speaking of which, I am very grateful to that boy Yongrong.
It's a pity that this boy was so unlucky that he was executed by Guitai on the night of the palace chaos.
This may also be floating behind Jia Liu.
All grievances have their owners, and debts have their owners. If it wasn't you, Guiziliu, who instigated the Eight Diagrams Cult to break into the forbidden palace and fish in troubled waters, how could Brother Renliu have died for his country?
But this is not a problem for the superstitious Jia Liu.
The food issue was the fundamental issue of the Qing Dynasty and a practical issue for the stability of Zhili. It must not be taken lightly.
After his detailed questioning, several farmers responded affirmatively that this year's rice production may be reduced by 40%, or even 50% or 60%.
Jia Liu attached great importance to it and immediately instructed Ding Qing to organize people to look at all the rice fields within a ten-mile radius to see if the rice growth was as unsatisfactory as this one. He also emphasized that attention should be paid to whether there were acres of land that were no longer productive.
The investigation must seek truth from facts. Since it is investigating the situation, of course it cannot only investigate the good ones and not the bad ones.
Whether it's long or not, just look at it and calculate it, that's what science calls it.
If you don't talk about science, you will lose people's hearts and destroy the Qing Dynasty.
The results were quickly reported, and they were similar to the rice fields Mr. Jia had seen. The growth was very poor, and most of the wheat ears were shriveled.
After listening to Ding Qing's report, Jia Liu was even more worried. Last year, the grain production in the Gyeonggi area was reduced, and the people could grit their teeth and hold on. If the situation is still the same this year, how can the people persist?
He is a governor-general with an annual income of up to 100 million. He can persist, but how can ordinary people who only rely on farming to survive.
The frowning Jia Liu humbly asked the farmers who had smoked almost a pack of cigarettes: "Old man, what was the rice yield per mu in the past?"
According to farmer experts, in the past, when rice production was at its peak, one acre of land could yield about three shi, or 400 kilograms.
Generally speaking, you can get close to three stones, and a little more than 350 pounds.
Taking the average, the yield per mu should be about 370 kilograms.
If the overall output this year is reduced by 40%, then only about 220 kilograms can be harvested from one acre of land.
This output is very appalling.
In Jia Liu's previous life, with the help of chemical pesticides and other technologies, the rice yield could reach upwards of 1,200 jins, and if the year was good, he could even receive 1,500 jins.
Of course, it is mainly in plain areas, and in other places it is usually folded in half.
For wheat, 1,000 kilograms is a high yield.
It is precisely because of science and technology that the Chinese people have enough to eat, saying goodbye to the hard days of eating dry when they are busy and drinking thin when they are idle.
So we should be grateful to technology instead of picking up the bowl to eat and putting down the chopsticks to curse.
The current grain production is really extremely dangerous. If the production reduction is true, the consequences will be even more serious.
Without thinking too much, Jia Liu immediately conducted a random survey of the surrounding villages and found that most families had either five or six people.
That is, a couple supports three to four children.
Excluding the elderly, the elderly usually cultivate a few acres of land by themselves. If they can no longer farm, they take turns living at their son's house, or stay in one family exclusively, and the other children receive food subsidies.
Having many children actually has little to do with the idea of continuing the family line, mainly because there are no measures.
There are two families with as many as nine or ten children.
Jia Liu can only estimate based on average conditions.
Assuming that one person eats four taels of rice a day, two meals a day is eight taels. A family of five needs four kilograms of rice a day, which means a family needs 1,400 kilograms of rice a year. That is, a family needs to cultivate at least five acres of land to ensure the minimum ration for a year.
need.
However, it does not include the land tax paid to the national treasury, various exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes from prefectures and counties, and other living materials that need to be exchanged for food, such as oil, salt, vegetables and meat, clothes, shoes, farm tools, etc., so a family must have at least
It takes ten acres of land to ensure that the whole family does not starve to death.
It is impossible to get rich.
This is still calculated based on the grain yield during the peak season.
Currently, crop yields in areas east of Gyeonggi are reduced due to weather conditions, which means that there will definitely be food shortages in the prefectures east of Gyeonggi from the second half of the year to the beginning of next spring.
If not handled properly, people will starve to death.
Immortality is Jia Liu's minimum requirement for officials.
If something like this happens, you have to beheaded. It's not something your local officials can just prevaricate and fool around by saying that the work is not done properly.
While discussing with Ding Qing and others how to prevent possible food shortages in advance and ensure that Zhili's large-scale development would not be affected, Jia Liu received another explanation of the situation that surprised him.
The farmers he just talked to are actually not landowners, but tenants.
The reason is that all the land in several prefectures east of Gyeonggi Province was circled by the Eight Banners in the early days of the Republic of China.
Therefore, the original landowners in the areas east of Gyeonggi Province either became the bannermen's tenants or became the bannermen's tenants.
Tenants must pay an additional portion of grain to the owner.
This completely overturned the food shortage picture that Jia Liu had previously simulated in his mind. If a family of five wanted to live on this land, they would have to cultivate at least 15 acres of land to survive. With this food shortage, they could not wait until the end of the year. Very soon
It is possible that it will break out after winter.
"Sir, if the grain harvest in the entire area east of Gyeonggi Province is the same as this place, I suggest that the province immediately mobilize grain from the provinces and prefectures and counties to stockpile it. Once there is a grain shortage, it can be sold at a low price or at a low price, or borrowed from the victims.
They can survive the disaster years”
Ding Qing was born in the criminal investigation field, but as an official with more than 20 years of practical experience in front-line work, he gave the most convenient solution without even thinking.
Jia Liu nodded. It is indeed one of the government's functions for higher-level officials to allocate food for disaster relief. But the problem is that there may not be much food in the Gyeonggi area that can be used for disaster relief, and the area east of Gyeonggi involves two large and small prefectures and counties.
There are millions of people living in thirty places, and it is impossible to transport food here in time just relying on the transportation capacity of the Zhili government.
This is true even a month or two in advance. Regardless of the dynasty, transportation not only limits economic development, but also limits disaster relief capabilities.
If the disaster area needs ten kilograms of grain, twenty kilograms will be consumed on the road.
Being powerless is what you are talking about.
Therefore, many times when famine occurs, even if the court realizes that disaster relief is necessary, it is often unable to transport and distribute food in time, leading to civil unrest and sliding into an irreversible abyss.
Not to mention that there are too many corrupt officials making huge profits from it.
The disappearance of former Ming officials was a masterpiece.
Relying on disaster victims to save themselves is even more of a joke.
Even if Jia Liu now fully opens Shanhaiguan and allows the victims to seek survival outside the customs, it is not certain that many people will be able to get there alive.
Because you need to eat on the way.
It is impossible to have food immediately when you arrive at a place. You also need food to sustain yourself, a place to live, and seeds and farm tools to clear up wasteland.
After much deliberation, I thought that I could let the Zhili Buzheng Yamen let the large and small grain merchants in nearby provinces and the province transport grain to the area east of Gyeonggi.
"My lord's intention is good, but this will cause the price of food in the area east of Gyeonggi to skyrocket, and the people may not be able to afford it."
Ding Qing's view: Businessmen are driven by profit. They transport food all the way to famine-stricken areas, not to save people, but to make a fortune.
The price of food has skyrocketed. What used to be three cents per catty has increased to thirty cents per catty. Who can ordinary people afford it?
In this way, the good intentions of the Governor will turn into bad intentions, which will indirectly lead to the situation in the disaster area becoming more serious, and refugees will be everywhere.
Jia Liu thought for a moment, but decided to let the merchants transport the grain, because the power mobilized by the merchants was far greater than that of the government.
In essence, the levels of government in this era not only have low administrative efficiency, but also extremely low mobilization capabilities, and are not very enthusiastic about disaster relief.
Most officials even just want to keep one-third of an acre of their own land and ask the refugees not to affect their territory. How can they be so kind as to help their neighbors share their worries?
Enough support.
Businessmen are different. They pursue profit. As long as they can make money, they are more energetic than being an emperor.
But we can't really let businessmen drive up prices, causing the disaster victims who are already suffering a devastating blow to sell their houses and children.
In this case, administrative intervention from him, the leader of the Zhili government, is needed.
Grain prices must not be suppressed, as this will disincentivize merchants from transporting grain to the east of Gyeonggi Province.
As the old saying goes, even if you sell your sons and daughters to get food, it is still better than the whole family dying.
The result of suppressing grain merchants and suppressing grain prices is that the victims will not be able to even eat the high-priced grains, and will either die or rebel.
Therefore, Jia Liu proposed a "make up for the difference" plan.
Let businessmen earn reasonable profits and maintain their enthusiasm, while not causing huge losses to the interests of the people.
To put it bluntly, for example, the current price of grain in Linyu County is three cents per catty. Merchants have to make money, but they also have to pay transportation costs, losses, etc., so they can be allowed to sell grain at ten cents or higher, but they must keep it at a reasonable price.
Within the accepted range of values.
However, the price of grain purchased by the people remained at three or five cents, and the price difference was borne by the government, and it was Jia Liu, the governor of Zhili, who borne it.
This approach, coupled with local self-rescue, will be able to survive the famine and ensure that the victims will not become refugees and the refugees will not become rogue bandits.
As for how much difference needed to be made up and how much money needed to be put in, Jia Liu could only grit his teeth and endure it silently.
Who made him the Qingtian Master of Zhili people?
Ding Qing thought for a while and said: "If your Excellency insists on doing this, then I would like to suggest that you can provide a bait to grain merchants from all over the world."
"Bait?"
Jia Liu didn't quite understand.
"It means sweetness,"
Ding Qing explained that his Excellency was engaged in trade with the North Sea, and trade required a large number of merchants to come to Tianjin to carry out trade with Western countries.
As we all know, sea trade is hugely profitable, so can the Governor allow those businessmen to complete this disaster relief plan at a low price or even at a loss on the grounds of sea trade franchise?
"Yes, why didn't I think of that? Director Ding has a great future as a businessman."
Jia Liu was really impressed by Ding Qing. Although he was the deputy director, he never used the title "vice" for anyone.
This plan looks familiar. It seems that the top businessman got in touch with Marshal Zuo by transporting grain at a loss, and got out of hand.
The suggestion is very good, very bold, and very beautiful.
Food is sold to the sky at high prices. How can it be compared with sea trade?
Moreover, this sweetness can also allow Jia Liu to cultivate a consortium with himself as its spokesperson. Even if the power of the consortium is harmful to the country in the future, it is an absolute Nascent Soul-level magic weapon for Jia Liu now. If it is used well, the fourth devil will
I have to clean the streets at Chongwenmen.
Needless to say, once this news is released, the roads will be crowded with teams transporting grain to the east of Gyeonggi Province from surrounding provinces, and there will be no need to worry about the serious consequences of a poor autumn grain harvest.
Immediately, an official document was written to inform the second-in-command Yang Jingsu of the serious reduction in grain production in the east of Gyeonggi Province and the possible outbreak of grain shortage, and asked Lao Yang to quickly negotiate with grain merchants in surrounding provinces, including local grain associations, in the name of Zhili Province, focusing on the transportation of grain.
One thing is combined with the maritime trade franchise.
As soon as there are results from the negotiations, businessmen from all over the country must be immediately organized to transport grain to the areas east of Gyeonggi, and the governor's offices in other regions must also send people to make arrangements to ensure that there is sufficient food in various places.
After I finished writing the official document and dried it, I sent someone to send it to Baoding immediately.
Later, he told Ding Qing that this matter was treating the symptoms rather than the root cause.
Ding Qing was also puzzled after hearing this: "It is your benevolent government that the people can have food to survive the famine. Why do you still talk about treating the symptoms and the root cause?"
"I mean this happened to me this year and I solved it. What happens next? Does it have to be like this every year? As the saying goes, it is better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish."
After saying that, Jia Liu looked at the vast fields in front of him, took out the iron box containing cigarettes from his pocket, opened it and found that there was another cigarette. He couldn't help but slowly brought it to his mouth, lit it with a fire stick, took a puff and spit it out.
He inhaled and exhaled again, and as the cigarette burned to the bottom of his index finger, he finally made up his mind and said: "There is only one way to cure the root cause."
Ding Qing asked curiously: "What can I do?"
"Divide the land to each household!"
Jia Liu picked up the last section of the cigarette that was as long as his fingernails between his thumb and ring finger, took a deep puff, threw it to the ground, and then crushed it with his toes.