my steam dam

Chapter 141

Before the advent of agricultural machinery such as rotary tillers and steam tractors.

The agricultural situation of Ming Dynasty is no different from that of most ancient Chinese dynasties.

Although the current farming tools have developed a lot compared to before, the yield per mu is a little higher than before.

But in terms of maximum productivity, manpower has a limit, which is something that cannot be overcome.

In fact, the emergence of rotary tillers and tractors in the past two years has not pleased the broad poor peasant class.

The happiest is the landlord class with more than one hundred acres of land!
The second is the class of wealthy households with more than [-] mu and less than [-] mu of land.

The last ones are ordinary self-cultivators who own more than [-] mu of land and less than [-] mu of land.

As for the poor class who don't have ten acres of land, they are not only not happy with the appearance of rotary tillers and steam tractors, but disgusted!
Because of the emergence of these agricultural equipment, the living space of the poor peasant class has been further squeezed!
Originally, the landlords and gentry, no matter how rich they are, no matter how much fertile land they have, because they can't plow it, they always have to hire poor people to plow it.

Also known as tenants.

Although it is true that being a tenant is not better than a self-cultivating farmer, being a tenant is still a good choice at this time in the Hongwu Year.

Regardless of whether it is official land or private land, the treatment is fair.

A landless person, as long as he is diligent enough, can support his family by being a tenant.

But with the advent of the rotary tiller and steam tractor, productivity increased dramatically.

Landlords only need to hire a few people to operate these machines, and they can cultivate hundreds of acres of land!

Although it may be that when the autumn harvest is busy, it is still necessary to hire some extra people to do part-time work to help collect grain.

But part-time workers are all paid, and for a day's work, they earn a day's worth of copper coins.

It is much less than the income from tenants!
Once the wealthy landowners popularized the cultivation mode of rotary tillers and steam tractors.

After that, if the poor want to be tenants, they have no place to do it, and their income will drop sharply!
Although Daming's requirements for workers are increasing every year, working in a factory is also a good place to go.

However, the degree of attachment of the Chinese people to the land cannot be changed in a decade or so.

In addition, the current shortage of workers is not that big, at least it is impossible to arrange for all the landless poor.

In the foreseeable future, the life of the landless poor in Ming Dynasty will be even more difficult.

But what they didn't know was that this situation was deliberately done by Emperor Hongwu.

For the landlord class, the emergence of rotary tillers and steam tractors has saved them money and made it easier to cultivate the land at hand, which is a good thing.

For the landless poor, it is actually a good thing!
After the war, China is actually in a period of sparsely populated land.

But why are there so many landless poor?
The main reason is that most of the population of Ming Dynasty is densely clustered in the southern region.

The land in the south is very tight, which belongs to the situation of more people and less land.

But in the vast north, there are actually a lot of wastelands waiting to be reclaimed.

But because of the deep-rooted Chinese people's hard-rooted homeland, and the unwillingness to leave their hometown, no one is willing to go to the north to cultivate land.

I would rather be a tenant for a landlord in my hometown than move my family thousands of miles to the north to be a self-cultivator.

From the promulgation of the immigration order to the present, in the eight years, millions of immigrants have migrated from the south to the north.

But for Daming, it's really just a very, very small part.

A Suzhou prefecture has over 50 households and a population of over 230 million!

In the whole of Nanzhili, there are only eleven state capitals, and there are 200 million people!
You know, the area of ​​Nanzhili is less than 24 square kilometers.

In the north, Shandong Province, including the capital of Liaodong, has a size of 27.3 square kilometers, of which Liaodong occupies 12.4 square kilometers.

But in the whole of Shandong, there are only 500 million people, of which Liaodong only has a population of 50!

The further north you go, the fewer people there are!
The north is the front line facing the northern barbarians, and it needs a large amount of military supplies.

Moreover, there is a lot of arable land in the north, whether it is Shandong or Liaodong, there is a lot of wasteland!

But the people in the south, few people are willing to immigrate there.

In desperation, Emperor Hongwu tried his best to promote the advent of farming machines.

The purpose is to increase the productivity of the people's arable land and reduce or even eradicate the class of tenants!

Then, with a promise of great profits, these landless poor people are forced to accept the imperial court's assignment to reclaim wasteland in sparsely populated places!
There is no place to be a tenant tenant, and when factories are in high demand for workers, the imperial court will offer the temptation of [-] mu or [-] mu of land for each household to immigrate, and it will really be very effective.

This is what a mature politician would do.

To lure the common people with profit and take advantage of the general situation, instead of forcing the common people to bow their heads, forcing or forcing the landless people to emigrate through administrative means.

If the people are forced to immigrate, the people will definitely complain.

Even if these people do live better after immigration, they still feel dissatisfied with the court in their hearts.

After all, it is "forced".

However, Emperor Hongwu indirectly squeezed out the living space of tenants on the grounds of promoting the popularization of rotary tillers and steam tractors to increase productivity for the people.

Then, a good policy that is rare in a thousand years is introduced, and the wasteland is completely free, as long as you sign up, you can get it.

After such a combination of punches, everyone from the folk to the court can only praise Hongwu Emperor for loving the people like a son and caring about the people's livelihood!
The vast middle class and the landlord class can cultivate their own land better, more conveniently, and more economically.

The poor class must also "voluntarily" sign up for immigration in order to live, to receive one or two hundred acres of land, obediently reclaim new fields for Daming, and increase the area of ​​arable land!

The imperial court can also obtain more food reserves, and the frontier army can obtain military food supplies nearby, so that they can better fight outside the fortress.

This is the truly gentle policy of governing the country that kills many birds with one stone!

In a soft-spoken manner, Emperor Hongwu explained to his grandson the methods and ideas on how to increase the productivity of farmers and cooperate with administrative means to lure the people to voluntarily emigrate to achieve their goals.

Finally, he also concluded:
"Grandson, there is a folk proverb."

"You can lead a cow to water, but you can't force it to drink."

"If an old cow doesn't drink water, you can't forcefully press its head."

"The same goes for governing a country."

"No matter what policy the imperial court wants to implement or what goal it wants to achieve, the best strategy is to lure it with profit and let it voluntarily do and accept it."

"Instead of using strong government orders to force it to do things according to your requirements."

"If you do this once or twice, the people will complain and the country will surely perish!"

"There is a lesson from Qin Shihuang and Sui Yangdi before!"

"You must remember it in your heart!"

"In the future, if you are the Son of Heaven, don't act too hastily, take your time, don't go your own way, and use the general force to force you!"

"Governing a big country is like cooking small fish, and everything should not be underestimated."

What Emperor Hongwu said seemed to reveal some intriguing meanings.

The grandson raised his head, glanced at the kindly looking grandfather, and respectfully said: "Grandson will follow the teachings of the emperor's grandfather."

"Governing a big country needs to be done slowly, and you can't do it quickly and cause a big mistake!"

Emperor Hongwu nodded in satisfaction, clapped his hands and laughed loudly: "My good grandson, you can teach a child!"

(End of this chapter)