Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1052 "The Emperor Calls Urgently"

In the next two days, Huang Zhiting began to seize the time to discuss with the big businessmen in Liaodong about the purchase of ginseng, deer antler and other valuable Chinese medicinal materials, as well as the sale of Annan rice. These are all details, so I won't repeat them here.

Gao Yushi is also very busy here. Apart from the planned "heavy industry" development in Liaodong, it seems that he only needs to copy the Kaiping model, and the agricultural problems can make him worry.

At this moment, he really realized the greatness of the old Mr. Yuan in the later generations. Right now, the output per mu of the whole country of Ming Dynasty is high in the world. Unfortunately, under various natural disasters, it is still not enough. Liaodong, just using "not enough" to describe it is really an understatement.

When he was not a governor, he didn’t know it. After becoming a governor, Gao Wushi specially called a group of financial talents brought by Gao Guoyan himself to do calculations, only to find that Liaodong’s annual food shortage is as high as more than 300 million catties (converted It has become a modern habit to facilitate reading), except that the amount of salt in Liaodong can be exchanged for part of it from the mainland (this account is now going to Jinghua, because Jinghua "contracted" the Yingkou salt field, as mentioned above), the final gap is still 4000 million catties about.

4000 million catties, that is 2000 million kilograms, equivalent to [-] tons. After converting to tons, it seems that the amount is not large.

However, the actual population of Liaodong may be only 400 million [according to the historical population records in the Liaodong sub-volume, Jilin sub-volume, and Heilongjiang sub-volume of "China Population", not all of these 400 million are Han Chinese, according to the rough estimate of the Ming Dynasty. ——It only has a rough estimate——Han people accounted for the "seventeenth", that is, 300%, that is, less than [-] million.

Calculated on the basis of 300 million yuan, this 4000 million catty gap is equivalent to a food deficit of more than 13 catties per person per year, which is indeed not much, but there is a very critical problem here-do you think that people in this era have Can you eat rice?

Of course it is possible to be highly pragmatic, but the civilians in Liaodong can be treated this way, which is typical of not waking up.

The food that ordinary people in Liaodong eat is really complicated. All kinds of coarse grains are considered good, wild vegetables are also good, and all kinds of poisonous grasses, roots, and bark are all on the plate.As for hunting, it's not just for fun, it requires a lot of patience, and it's not a project to guarantee income from drought and flood, so you can only look at it.

Fishing is of course an option, but it also requires skills and tools, and even fishing is not that simple-you might as well do more work if you have this spare time!However, since the productivity in Liaodong is not high, the price of silver is obviously expensive. A day laborer in the capital can make more than two taels of silver a month, which is almost halved in Liaodong. This is the gap.

As for eating rice for every meal, it means that the family either had a well-run ancestor and a well-off family, or at least there must be a master in the family, which is very difficult for a scholar-Li Chengliang was a scholar in his early years, but he was so poor that he even went to the capital. This is a clear proof that you can't even go through the formalities to inherit the father's position.

Therefore, under such circumstances, the average food shortage of the population of Liaodong is still more than 13 catties, which is very unscientific.

Gao Yushi has calculated the number of acres of fields and the average yield per mu, but the final results are still inconsistent, and there is obviously a big omission between the two.

This omission can only be due to the fact that a few people have occupied too many fields, and these fields have been concealed through means such as donations and treachery.

What the hell, it’s no wonder that so many hidden fields were found in Shandong when they cleared Zhang’s fields before (Ming Dynasty’s Liaodong was merged into Shandong and counted together, and there were also very complicated army garrison fields, etc.), now it seems that Shandong’s Qingzhang is still problematic, at least Jun Tuntian must not have found out.

And Liaodong is a "military-administered area", and officials and officials generally have no interest in setting up a large family business in Liaodong. At most, officials who are originally from Liaodong will make a fortune from it.

Gao Yuyu can imagine it with his toes. Those who really eat meat and drink blood are probably generals. Many officers and generals must have a large number of hidden fields under their names. As for the largest family among them, don’t think too much about it. It must be Li Chengliang's family.

Crows in the world are generally black, and Li Chengliang cannot be solely blamed for being greedy. This point is highly pragmatic and clear. However, the situation in Liaodong is only a lot better from the outside. If the inside is so messy, something will happen sooner or later.

In the future, if the "Corn Project" is done well, of course it can solve some problems, but it will treat the symptoms rather than the root cause. If you want to solve the root cause, you have to find a way from the system.

It's hard to say how much land Li Chengliang took, how much of it was military land, how much was "illegal income", and how much was still in the gray area.

But from Gao Yushi's point of view, he can tolerate those in the gray area for the time being. The occupation of military fields and outright illegal gains, then he will definitely not be able to bear them. These things must be changed within his tenure, even if his tenure is not enough. It can't be done thoroughly, and a way must be explored.

In the past two days, more than half of his energy has been devoted to thinking about the acreage and food issues.

The remaining small part is to consider Annan's support for the war in Burma.

In fact, with Annan supporting the war against Myanmar, Annan himself can handle more than half of it.Nearly two years have passed, and the various ministries of the Jinghua military industry in Annan's side have become a little bit better, and the output of the Ha Tinh Iron Mine has also kept up. If we really want to talk about military issues, there is actually only one problem: Annan has no gunpowder output.

To make gunpowder, you must first have sulfur and saltpeter, and the high level of practical geography is limited. I don’t know where the two brothers dig in Annan. I didn’t ask Liu Xin last time, so Annan doesn’t have the ability to produce gunpowder at all.

Currently, the main producing area of ​​sulfur in Daming is Sichuan, and there is also a part in Gansu. However, the Ming court still strictly controls gunpowder, and it is highly pragmatic and does not intend to violate the ban (after the military industry is privately owned, the Ministry of War and the Imperial Horse Supervisor will investigate), so it is exported to Annan. Gunpowder is limited.

Of course, this in itself is also in line with Gao Pragmatic's idea of ​​controlling Annan - it is impossible for him to have the ability to produce and use firearms in one go, otherwise, with Gao Pragmatic's status, this problem is not impossible to solve.

The imperial court wants to coax and Annan wants to control, so Gao Wushi thought of another way: to develop Taiwan Island.

Although Taiwan is now a deserted island and its resources are not abundant, it is relatively reliable in terms of sulfur reserves alone. The sulfur in the northern volcanic area is at least high enough to be practical for hundreds of years.

He told Huang Zhiting before that the food needed in Taiwan may increase year by year. It is because of this. After all, there must be someone to develop Taiwan. The more immigrants, the bigger the food gap-these people will definitely not be able to achieve food self-sufficiency in the first place. .

Sulphur, and saltpeter.Daming's saltpeter production areas are very close to sulfur production areas, especially Sichuan, which is the main force, and the other is the Longxi area, which is the production area of ​​excavated nitrate mines (there are not no other places).

In addition to mining, the rest is the "dirty way": boil nitrate from the toilet.Of course, the Ming Dynasty will not be reduced to King Charles I of England, who ordered all the toilets in the country to be owned by the state, so this kind of boiled salt in the Ming Dynasty is basically a civil behavior-of course the guards also do it, but the court generally does not Say it directly.

Gao Wushi has been looking for the source of "overseas nitrate mines", and finally found it for him - in Tumed.

To be specific, it is even more of a coincidence that several large saltpeter mines are located in the area under the control of Hannaji's lair Xishao, the later Alxa Left Banner in Inner Mongolia.

The Xishao area of ​​Hannaji is actually a very large area. How big is it... Probably starting from Bayannur in Inner Mongolia in later generations, and then all the Inner Mongolia in the west, all the way to the border of Gansu in Ming Dynasty. It is estimated that There are 20 square kilometers, larger than Liaodong.

Of course, these places are sparsely populated areas, and it was useless to use Hanajibu before. As the lord himself, he had never even been there.

When the people from Jinghua discovered saltpeter there, they easily negotiated a development plan with Hannaji.

The development plan is very generous. Hannaji is named as Chechen Khan and Xishaotaiji, and the three major saltpetre producing areas of Jilongtonggu, Bayindala, and Hetun Yanchi in later generations are paid at an annual price of 3000 taels of silver. The price was chartered to Jinghua.

That's right, 3000 taels, packed.The only condition is that Yan Jinghua from Hetun Salt Pond can't touch him, he can only dig saltpeter.

It doesn't matter, he is pragmatic and has no shortage of salt. He owns the Yingkou Salt Farm and his uncle owns the Changlu Salt Farm.

At that time, Gao and Zhang's status in the salt industry, I dare not say that there are two-thirds of the world, at least one-third of the world is definitely no problem, so Hetun Yanchi asked Han Naji to keep him It's ready - anyway, the Mongols don't even know how to refine, they can only sell raw salt, they don't have any technical content, and the output is average, so they love whoever they are.

The Ming court’s control over the economy is actually very average. It only cares about what is produced in the Ming Dynasty’s own territory, and does not care about overseas ones. Therefore, the high output of the three major saltpeter mines can completely bypass supervision, as long as they pay a [-]% tax and it’s over. That's it - this number was set when Gao Gong was in power, and most of the commercial taxes that have been levied in the country are now based on this standard.

In this way, Annan's battle was fought a bit early. Although the saltpeter issue has been mostly resolved, there is still no word on the sulfur side. Therefore, if the high-level pragmatist needs Annan to start a war against Myanmar, the sulfur issue can only be obtained from Japan. idea.

Jinghua has trade with Japan now - the Beiyang Maritime Trade Alliance does this, so it is not impossible to buy sulfur from Japan in a pragmatic way. Moreover, because Japan is located in a volcanic belt, not only is there a lot of sulfur, but the quality is also particularly good. The price is also more reasonable.

But the trade with Japan is relatively unstable at the moment, because Japan is now in a mess-a major event happened last year: the change of Honnoji Temple.

Needless to say, the change in Honnoji Temple may be the most famous and influential coup in Japanese history, and it can even be said to have completely changed the direction of Japan.

But Gao Wushi didn't have time to feel sorry for Oda Nobunaga's death, and he didn't even worry about Toyotomi Hideyoshi—it was useless to worry, he couldn't reach it, and he couldn't find a reason to interfere, and Daming still had a lot of troubles to solve.

The key point is that after the Honnoji Incident, the Warring States Period of Japan is coming to an end, but this "end" is also a particularly chaotic period, so he is mainly afraid that there will be problems with the purchase of sulfur, so that he has instructed the Beiyang Maritime Trade to step up the purchase for the past two days. They have made great efforts to purchase sulfur, even with an attitude of ignoring the cost.

At the same time, he ordered Gao Qi (that is, Gao Sitang before the name change) to shift the focus of developing Taiwan Island from the southwestern area of ​​Taiwan to the Taipei area, focusing on the search for natural sulfur mines-the high pragmatic level is there, he only knows The approximate location of the sulfur mine in northern Taiwan, this location is very broad, and it cannot be precise, so we can only send people to find it.

After finishing these things, he calculated the time and felt that even if Annan wanted to send troops, he would have at least three months to prepare. In other words, Liu Ting's current task was still very heavy.

The key is that Gao Yushi always feels that Liu Ting's military strength is a little too weak. This guy's own servants are less than three thousand (this is determined by Liu Xian's background, the background is too low, and the level of holding money is not in place). What reassures Gao Yushi a little is that Liu Ting's battle seems to be relatively smooth in history.

Although I don't know why.

Gao Wushi suspects that this is because he is used to the tactic of overwhelming others when commanding battles, and is not used to Liu Ting's style of attacking elite soldiers to break through and then win in one fell swoop.

It's a pity that Gao Yushi doesn't know enough about the specific combat process of the Ming-Myanmar War-it can't be helped. The documents of Chinese dynasties and dynasties have extremely rough records of specific battles. In many cases, it is obviously an important victory. Three words: defeat, break, big defeat, big break, etc. The specifics of how to fight are not mentioned at all, it's just fucking.

Qi Jiguang said that the "basic method" that the ancient art of war emphasizes strategy rather than training and employing soldiers, it really hits the nail on the head.

However, although Liu Ting won the battle in history, and Gao Wushi had deliberately strengthened the military equipment of Liu Ting's troops before, but he himself was a "sluggish fighter" after all, so after much deliberation, he still gave Liu Ting and Cao Each of Gan wrote a letter.

The letter to Liu Ting was to tell him that if there was any shortage in logistics or even military equipment, he should go to the Southwest Branch of the Jinghua Trading Company to solve the problem, and he would order them to cooperate fully; and the letter to Cao Gan was of course to tell him this matter. , Let him notify the Southwest Branch, after all, he is in charge of the Jinghua Commercial Company, and Gao Wushi doesn't want to skip the command at every turn - Mr. Chang's lessons from the past are not far away, and Gao Wushi doesn't plan to learn from him to do logistics.

After finishing all these things, it was already the third day, and Huang Zhiting's affairs were almost done. Gao Wushi was thinking about holding a practice banquet for her, and sending her back to Annan to sit in the town first.

Unexpectedly, an accident happened.

In the early morning of that day, Han Guang, the guarding eunuch, rushed to the Fuyuan to ask Gao Wushi to see him. After seeing Gao Wushi, he went straight to the point: "High school prime minister, the emperor has urgently called, please return to Beijing immediately!"

"Now?" Gao Wushi was taken aback for a moment: "What name do I use to return to Beijing?"

Han Guang smiled wryly and said, "The emperor didn't say... What Mr. Chen means is that it's just a job report."

Gao Yushi was even more incredulous. He was about to say, "But I've just assumed the new post." Who knows what Han Guang thought of, and slapped his head vigorously: "Oh, look at my memory! The emperor also said, please Bring Deputy Envoy Huang along with you."

"Deputy envoy Huang? Which deputy envoy Huang?" Gao Wushi was completely confused. There are now two deputy envoys Huang in Liaodong. It is the deputy envoy of Shandong, who can also be called the deputy envoy.

But Han Guang seemed to have forgotten the deputy envoy behind him, and said directly: "Of course it's the one in your house, who else could it be?"

The corner of Gao Yushi's mouth twitched, and he thought: Can you "man" speak more carefully, what do you mean by this man in my house?I'm so busy, but I don't have time for anything bad... Cough, I didn't do anything, I didn't do anything!
-
Thanks to book friends "Book Friends 20190223180428135" and "Zhang Shuidong" for their monthly ticket support, thank you!
PS: The biological clock seems to be out of order today, this chapter has to be posted earlier, I guess I can't bear it to fall asleep at night...

(End of this chapter)