"Your Majesty, the Ministry of Revenue has compiled statistics on this year's autumn harvest."

After presiding over Zhu Youxiao's wedding at Tianjin Port and negotiating with Zhu Youxiao to come back to supervise the country, Zhu Youdong hurried back to Beijing.

Of course, although the traffic situation of the Ming Dynasty in this plane is far better than that of this plane, it cannot be compared with modern times. Therefore, it can be foreseen that it will definitely take a lot of time for the emperor to tour the country. Before that, , naturally there is a lot of preparation work to be done. Therefore, if we really want to go on patrol, it will have to be next year. Before that, the state affairs meetings that should be held must still be carried out as usual.

At the State Council meeting in early October, Wang Shaozheng, the Minister of Household Affairs, reported bad news to Zhu Youdong.

"Your Majesty, since the first year of the Apocalypse, our Ming Dynasty has opened up a lot of territory, established four new provinces, and de facto controlled the north and south of the desert. Therefore, in the seventh year of the Apocalypse, the country actually had 960 million acres of cultivated land. But this year, according to the According to calculations by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the number of affected cultivated lands across the country has reached 210 million acres, and there are nearly 10 million acres of abandoned land."

"ah?"

Zhu Youdong hadn't spoken yet. When the ministers attending the meeting heard what Wang Shaozheng said, they all couldn't sit still.

"Da Situ, what's going on?"

"Yes, agriculture is the foundation of the country and there is no room for chaos. Why is there so much land affected by the disaster?"

"That's it for the disaster-stricken land. If God doesn't give you a good look this year, it doesn't mean he won't give you a good look every year. But what's going on with so much land being abandoned?"

Facing all the ministers talking, Zhu Youdong tapped his fingers on the table again out of habit.

The area of ​​cultivated land in the Ming Dynasty was a roller coaster. If you study the cultivated land in the Ming Dynasty according to the "Records of the Ming Dynasty", it will probably collapse: in the 24th year of Hongwu (1391), the area of ​​cultivated land was only 390 million acres, and after two years it became 850 million acres. Mu, and seven years later it became 420 million mu. In the 21st year of Chenghua (1485), it was 490 million mu, and two years later it became 830 million mu. In the 17th year of Hongzhi, it was 840 million mu, and one year later it became 470 million mu. The official cultivated land data of the Ming Dynasty is so capricious: within one or two years, it can increase by hundreds of millions of acres, or it can suddenly drop by hundreds of millions of acres.

In fact, if you analyze these data carefully, you can see the pattern: in the 24th year of Hongwu, it was one year before Huangceku was completed. Therefore, two years later, Huangceku was officially completed, and the land area increased dramatically. And seven years after that , it was Emperor Jianwen who came to the throne. This guy who could defeat Wang Zhajia and four others was obviously deceived by the civil servants below. After Chenghua, Hongzhi had just ascended the throne, and the natural land area increased after the refreshment. After Hongzhi was Emperor Zhengde, the young emperor was bullied by civil servants when he first came to power. The cultivated land in the Ming Dynasty's account books suddenly dropped by 370 million acres...

All in all, when the emperor was strong, the Ming Dynasty had more cultivated land, and vice versa. The bad behavior of civil servants in the Ming Dynasty did not start after the Donglin Party was formed, but it has been so bad since the Jianwen period.

This roller coaster-like change in cultivated land area finally changed completely during Zhang Juzheng's administration: Grand Master Zhang had soldiers at the time, so he was very iron-fisted in cleaning up the cultivated land area across the country. In addition, Grand Master Zhang's ability to govern the country was the best in the world, so , its cleaning method is also very scientific:

First of all, not only the land of the common people, but also the land occupied by clans and princes was re-measured. "The land of the father-in-law is equalized, but if there is any obstruction, regardless of clan, officials, soldiers and civilians, severe punishment will be imposed according to the law." Zhang Juzheng gave the place.

The strong political pressure of the official "passing the law" finally ensured the smooth implementation of land clearing, and 155 million acres of unreported land were cleared that year.

The second is to unify the mu system. In the past, there was a phenomenon of "large and small mu" in the north. Zhang Juzheng unified the national mu system through "land clearing", and all 240 steps were regarded as one mu. The "unified mu system" was reduced

The trouble of collecting taxes and grains eliminates the loopholes of low-level officials taking advantage of "big and small acres" to make profits.

The third is to simplify the tax collection rules. After the land is cleared, the land is divided into three grades: high-grade fertile fields with water sources, medium-grade barren and poor fields, and low-grade high-water-rich fields. When paying taxes, the rules are the same whether it is official land or private land.

1 mu of field is actually 1 mu, 1.5 mu is converted into 1 mu for medium field, and 2 mu is converted into 1 mu for inferior field.

Such iron-fisted and scientific land clearing was carried out, and by the ninth year of Wanli, land clearing was completed across the country. There were actually 758 million acres of cultivated land in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty.

After the death of Zhang Juzheng, the amount of cultivated land in the Ming Dynasty gradually decreased. It was not until Zhu Youdong became the supervisor that he rebuilt the Yellow Book with an iron fist and redrawn the fish scale album based on the Yellow Book. So in the first year of Tianqi, Zhu Youdong ascended the throne.

At that time, the cultivated land of Ming Dynasty was 830 million acres.

From the first year to the seventh year of Tianqi, on the one hand, a large number of princes and princes transferred overseas and returned a large amount of cultivated land to the country. On the other hand, the country expanded its territory. Therefore, by this time, the cultivated land area of ​​the Ming Dynasty reached 960 million

Mu: And this number of acres is calculated based on Zhang Juzheng’s conversion method. If we really talk about the pure amount of land, it is estimated to be around 1.1 billion acres.

But now the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development reports that more than one-fifth of the land has been affected by the disaster, and about 1% of the land has been abandoned?

"Da Situ, in which provinces are the affected lands mainly concentrated?"

"Your Majesty, it is mainly Liaoning, Beizhili, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Gansu. These five places are almost completely affected by the disaster. In addition, some fields in Henan and Shandong are also affected. In addition, large areas of the grasslands in Mongolia are also affected."

"What kind of disaster did you suffer? Drought?"

"Sheng Ming Wu Guo Emperor, drought is indeed the main problem. Taking Liaoning as an example, in January and February this year, there were only two small-scale snowfalls in Liaoning. In June and July this year, there was not even a single heavy rain. Rivers in various places

The amount of water has decreased, and smaller streams have stopped flowing. Due to water shortage, all cultivated land in Liaoning Province has reduced production or even stopped harvesting.

In addition, due to insufficient rainfall, insect pests are also aggravating. In the spring and summer of this year, there were large-scale locust plagues in Shandong and Henan. In addition to locust plagues, wheat rust, aphids, etc. also appeared frequently."

"Hmm..." After knocking on the table for a while, Zhu Youdong raised his head and said, "What about Mongolia? The drought has caused the pasture to shrink and there is not enough grass?"

"That's not all, Your Majesty. Since the end of last year, Qin Tianjian has clearly told the Ministry of Household Affairs that this year will be a disaster year. In addition to drought and insect disasters, the temperature is also lower than the same period in previous years. Therefore, the soldiers and civilians of Liaoning Province and I are eager to

A heavy snowfall had to change the situation. On the Mongolian grasslands, winter was a white disaster, and a large number of livestock froze to death. In summer, there were sandstorms, which eroded the already underdeveloped pasture area... After several natural disasters intertwined, various tribes in Mongolia this year

Life has been extremely difficult.”

Nodding, Zhu Youdong turned to Tian Ergen and Wei Zhongxian: "Zhang Shize guides public opinion, and you two are responsible for investigating public opinion. Tell me, after so many disasters this year, are there any doubts in the government and the public?"

Tian and Wei looked at each other and laughed bitterly.

"Your Majesty, I have indeed heard a lot of bad things in Dongchang in the past year. The most bastard ones are of course the ones that say that the Emperor has arbitrarily changed the laws of our ancestors, made God unhappy, and sent disasters to punish the Ming Dynasty."

"Your Majesty, my royal guards also heard similar words. In addition to criticizing the Emperor, they also said that the Queen and Concubine You did not practice women's virtues, and as women, they were exposed everywhere. They said that the Supreme Emperor was wasting the people's wealth and anointing, touring the country, so that

God despises and brings disasters. The ministers and factory officials have written notes about these and sent them to the ceremonial supervisor."

"Well, I have heard these things said by Cao Huachun one after another in the past year. But as the emperor, how can I arrest the people below and arrest or imprison or kill them if they say something stupid? That's all.

That’s all, this matter needs to be implemented in terms of guiding public opinion.”

As a time traveler, Zhu Youdong certainly knows that the Ming Dynasty has entered the Little Ice Age, and in the next few decades, this extreme climate will not get better, but will only get worse.

The so-called Little Ice Age, to put it simply, means that the temperature dropped sharply and the rainfall belt moved southward. This caused a general reduction in food production, and at the same time, there was drought in the north and floods in the south. A country like the Chinese Empire that mainly relied on farming, encountered

Such extreme weather is simply killing me.

According to the research of later meteorologists represented by Zhu Kezhen, after the Chinese nation entered civilized society, it experienced four relatively extreme Little Ice Ages. They were the late summer and early Shang Dynasty, the Three Kingdoms and Two Jin Dynasties, the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, and the late Ming Dynasty.

This shows how powerful this little ice age was in the early Qing Dynasty.

"Da Situ, I'm looking at the data submitted by the Ministry of Household Affairs. In places in the north where disasters are more obvious, most of them only have reduced production, and there are still a few who have no harvest, right?"

"Your Majesty." Wang Shaozheng stood up and bowed respectfully: "Speaking of this, I must express my admiration for the Emperor. The Emperor vigorously promoted the planting of potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn more than 20 years ago, and worked hard to improve

Rice seeds. Today, the results have been very obvious. For example, in the newly-established Gansu Province, wheat and millet harvests have almost completely failed. However, potatoes are growing well, and the people there are still able to eat to some extent. In addition to the effective relief provided by the imperial court, it is still

One who can barely survive starvation."

"Barely starving to death..." Zhu Youdong shook his head helplessly: This is not a disaster in one or two years, but will last for decades. If he can barely starve to death for so many years, it is impossible to say, and Li Zicheng

Something like that is coming out.

"My lords." Zhu Youdong stood up and said, "I mean that every citizen of the Ming Dynasty is my subject and needs care. Therefore, it is appropriate to provide tax exemptions and vigorous relief in disaster-stricken areas."

"Your Majesty, this year I have asked for an exemption from land taxes in the disaster-stricken areas mentioned above, and also mobilized three million dan from the grain storage in Taichou for relief."

"Not enough." Zhu Youdong waved his hand: "The Ministry of Household Affairs needs to do more detailed work. In areas that have been severely affected, except for land taxes, such as poll taxes and corvee taxes, all are exempted. People can't pull anything out of the fields.

Where can we find money to pay taxes? To be honest, the past few years were better, and people’s families had some surplus. Otherwise, with the intensity of disaster relief this year, there would be no civil unrest."

"Your Majesty has learned that I know I was wrong."

"Hey, you don't have to be like this, Master Situ. I am also lazy. In recent years, there have been too many things, so as long as there is no civil commotion, I just let it go and directly criticize it. If you say it is wrong, I am the one who is wrong.

Sirs, I have long said that there will be no stability without agriculture, no strength without industry, and no wealth without business. Agriculture is related to the foundation of the country and must be taken seriously. I have a hunch that in the next few decades, things like this will
Chapter completed!