I'm really not doing business

Chapter 675 Such a precious place should be occupied by people with virtue

The establishment of the Lao Xuanwei Office can be traced back to the Dali Kingdom during the Tang Dynasty. At that time, Yunnan was not in the hands of the Central Plains. The Dali Kingdom dominated the Indochina Peninsula. Under the Dali Kingdom, there was a small tributary state, the Jinglong Kingdom. After Kublai Khan conquered the Dali Kingdom, the Jinglong Kingdom left Yunnan with its people and settled in Laos.

Therefore, the place of Laos has shared the same language, culture and blood with the Miao people in Yunnan of the Ming Dynasty since the beginning.

Mengle Xuanweisi was a chieftain in Yunnan during the Ming Dynasty. The Xuanwei envoy was named Dao, and the Xuanwei envoy in Laos was also named Dao. The first generation of Laotian military and civilian Xuanwei envoy in the Ming Dynasty was called Dao Xiandai, and Dao means king in the local dialect.

When Zhang Juzheng said that Laos was bullied, he was not talking nonsense, but that it had indeed been bullied all its life.

In the 16th year of Chenghua, Laos paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty, and the envoys cried in the court about the invasion of Annan. The court sent the eunuch Qian Neng to mediate and ordered Annan to withdraw its troops. Annan withdrew its troops. In the 17th year of Chenghua, Li Hao of Annan led 90,000 troops, divided the mountains into three routes, advanced to defeat Ailao, and killed Xuanwei Dao Banya and his two sons on the grounds that they disturbed the superior country.

Upon hearing the news, Mu Cong, the Duke of Qian, had no choice but to order Dao Banya's youngest son to succeed his father, so that the line of the Laotian envoy would not be extinct.

The Duke's Mansion could appoint and dismiss the local officials of the Sanxuan and Liuwei chieftains, and correspondingly, Prince Lu could also confer titles to these overseas lords, because the status of overseas lords was roughly equivalent to that of the local officials of the Sanxuan and Liuwei chieftains.

In the 44th year of the Jiajing reign, the Laotian tribute envoy cried himself to death again. The Toungoo invaders were rampant, burning, killing, looting and committing all kinds of atrocities. Mang Yinglong's conquest of Laos was extremely cruel.

Therefore, Zhang Juzheng did not fabricate the situation of Laos or deceive the emperor. Laos was really in a very difficult situation. Today it was beaten by Annan, tomorrow it was beaten by Toungoo, and tomorrow it would be beaten by Siam. Life was really hard. Without any backing, and surrounded by wolves, it was so miserable.

"Then let the Duke of Qian's Mansion write a letter to the Lao Xuanwei Office and ask them to build a highway there. If possible, Wang Jiaping will draw up a plan and prepare to implement it." After listening to Zhang Juzheng's narration of the bloody history of Laos, Zhu Yijun felt that it was really tragic. They had been beaten for so many years and had to ask the Ming Dynasty for help every day.

The Ming Dynasty did not ask anything of Laos, but Laos always asked the Ming Dynasty for help. It was OK once or twice, but how could the Ming Dynasty continue to help over a long period of time? They only helped in emergencies, not in poverty. Now Laos was poor and weak, and the Ming Dynasty had helped so many times, but there was no improvement, so they had to give up.

Now, the Ming Dynasty is going to build a highway to get there!
Zhu Yijun was not familiar with military affairs, and the generals of the Ming army all trusted the land supply lines. It was necessary to station troops there, but the supply of the garrison needed to rely on the Chidao. Only when the Chidao was built to Laos and the ability for rapid deployment was achieved, would others not dare to bully the Lao Xuanwei Office!
Of course, when the Ming Dynasty tried to mediate and achieve peace, it only got some extra potassium salt.

"Wang Qian sent a memorial, which was studied by his mistress." Zhu Yijun took out a memorial and handed it to Wang Chonggu.

"This rebellious son, he doesn't do his job all day long, what has he researched again!" Wang Chonggu was furious. His son was a very smart child, why did he spend all day researching a concubine! Moreover, the more he studied, the more he found out about it. He has already become the number one person in the Ming Dynasty who studied concubines. Wang Chonggu was really helpless.

A grown-up son is no longer under the control of his father. Wang Qian could not listen to anything Wang Chonggu said.

In his memorial, Wang Qian listed five types of families and the price at which they sold their daughters. This was a selling price, not a marriage.

The Cai family in Huzhou, Zhejiang, was a big family. Cai Qiqing was the head of a large clan. In order to bring him good luck, his wife spent thirty taels of silver to buy a concubine. The concubine was a good girl. Although she had never been educated, she came from a wealthy family and had no worries about food and clothing.

The Huang family of Xiaoshan was a prominent family in the county, but their family had fallen into poverty. They had a daughter, and their fellow villager Fu Jiaze had admired this girl for a long time. He eventually bought the Huang daughter as a concubine for two hundred taels of silver. When the head of the Huang family found out, he spread the word and opened the family tree of this concubine.

The garrison commander of a camp in Suzhou was exiled to the smoky and malaria-ridden area of ​​Guangxi because of his poor performance in combat. His daughter did not want her parents to suffer in Guangxi, so she sold herself for 1000 taels of silver to atone her father's sins. This was the price of an official's daughter.

Ji Shu, the first wife of Ji family in Zhenjiang, is the current head of Ji family. He has a daughter named Ji Shu, who is proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and is quite talented in literature. She is a famous talented woman in Jiangnan. Later, Ji family was implicated in the Sanduao private market case, and the savings of several generations of Ji family were confiscated by the imperial guards. The Ji family fell into poverty. In order to repay the debt on behalf of her father, Ji Shu sold herself for two thousand taels and was bought by the merchant Pan Shouchun as a concubine.

Not long after, Pan Shouchun sold her to a brothel. Pan Shouchun felt that the merchant was impatient with her being a concubine and acting like a lady from a wealthy family, so he sold her directly.

A skinny horse from Yangzhou is worth only a few dozen to a hundred taels of silver, but the daughter of a noble family can be sold for more than two hundred taels.

"No, how could the Huang family of Xiaoshan act like this? When the concubine got into trouble, instead of helping her, they just watched her children being sold. They opened the family tree only after the incident. It's a bit too much." Zhang Juzheng felt that the behavior of the Huang family of Xiaoshan was a bit unkind. When the concubine got into trouble, it would be fine if they didn't help, but they even added insult to injury.

Wang Chonggu waved his hands and said, "Hey, Yuanfu comes from a small family, and he is a hereditary thousand-household family, so naturally he doesn't know much about these things. This family is big and powerful, so he can't help. Well, your family helped this concubine today, and will you help that concubine tomorrow? How can you help so many concubines? So you can only act like this, which is still good."

"If the Xiaoshan Huang family ruins the deal and then opens the family tree, that would be adding insult to injury."

Zhang Juzheng was stunned for a moment before he said, "So this is how all the powerful and wealthy families of yours run their families?"

"How else can they take care of it?" Wang Chonggu said confidently, "The Ten Kings City only moved the princes of Yanfu and the princes during the Hongwu period to the capital. As for the other princes, His Majesty did not care about their lives and let them fend for themselves."

“It’s impossible to manage it.”

This is how clans work, interests come first. Huang has been very conscientious and has not ruined the business by doing anything else. He has done his best.

Wang Chonggu continued, "During the Song Dynasty, a county lady could be bought for only 5,000 guan. In the seventh year of Yuanyou, the Empress Dowager asked Song Zhezong: I regret something very much. The other day I went to ask the hat-wearing Tian family and heard that they had ten county ladies and each one could be bought for 5,000 guan. The state would rather take your money. How can you be a rival to me?"

"Even a daughter of the royal family only costs five thousand strings of cash."

Wang Qian's research on this is actually about the word oppression, the oppression of children by parents. His research complements the oppression of clan members by clan power. This oppression is not only manifested in the consumption of the entire family, but also in various aspects of daily life.

How to break the oppression of clan power is the problem that the Ming Dynasty has to face.

"Originally, the section about the alienation of power on people should have clearly described the terrible oppression of the court on the people, but Lin Fucheng and Li Zhi were still too timid." Zhu Yijun said with a little helplessness.

He actually wanted to encourage Lin Fucheng and others to discuss the alienation of power on people, but Lin Fucheng did not dare to go any further.

Wang Chonggu shook his head and said, "I think the two of you have discussed it thoroughly. Although Lin Fucheng did not discuss it separately in his travel notes on Baoding Prefecture, the shadow of the court can be seen in every article. The birth of the weir owners was due to the invasion of the capital by Altan Khan during the rebellion of the barbarians in the 29th year of Jiajing. Although he did not directly accuse them, he still made it clear that there were terrible consequences for the court's dereliction of duty."

"Like this time, if there was no connivance from the governor of Yizhou, how could the opium den exist so openly and boldly?"

The government office was present in every major case, and the current court atmosphere in the Ming Dynasty was such that the government would never avoid talking about its own mistakes. For example, when Sichuan was facing difficulties in land surveying, it was Zhang Juzheng who took the lead in liquidating Luo Yao, the former governor of Sichuan.

This is already a huge progress. At least Wang Chonggu had never seen such a situation during the Jiajing and Longqing periods. This is the result of the performance evaluation system breaking the system of seated teachers.

The Ming Emperor's southern tour team has arrived in Xuzhou City and stayed at Xuzhou Yanqing Tower.

Along the way, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty saw the real Ming Dynasty, which had its good and bad sides, its flaws but also its vitality for booming development. These were all the Ming Dynasty. The Ming Dynasty was never the kingdom of God on earth as spoken of by the Great Light Cult. It had its flaws and contradictions.

However, Zhu Yijun's first impression of the various prefectures in the Southern Court was very, very bad. The journey from Taierzhuang to Xuzhou was very unpleasant for Zhu Yijun.

"General Qi, I have a question. I have arrived in Xuzhou and found that Xuzhou is well connected. This place can barely be considered to be surrounded by mountains and rivers, so it can be defended. However, compared with Shanhaiguan, Jiayuguan, Juyongguan, etc., it is much worse. From my humble opinion, Xuzhou is a place with no strategic locations to defend." Zhu Yijun didn't quite understand how Xuzhou became a battleground for military strategists.

This place is impossible to defend. There are rivers, the Yellow River and the Grand Canal, but the water volume is not large. It is far from being a natural barrier, and there are no strong passes. The terrain is very open.

"Your Majesty, this is why this place must be fought for." Qi Jiguang said with a smile: "Xuzhou can be attacked from all directions. It cannot be defended. The south cannot be defended, and the north cannot be defended. Therefore, once the north and the south conflict, Xuzhou and Huaihai will become a buffer zone, and a tug-of-war will follow."

"If we retreat one more step, we will be in our own hinterland, so we must not retreat. Naturally, it will become a place of war on all sides."

"So that's how it is. Thank you, General Qi, for clearing up my confusion." Zhu Yijun now understood why Xuzhou had become a battleground for military strategists throughout the ages. It was not because it was so easy to defend but difficult to attack, but because once here, no one could retreat a single step. To retreat would mean exposing one's inner strength, which would be a matter of life and death.

"Xuzhou is far inferior to the Shandong I visited." Zhu Yijun was very unhappy about what he saw in Xuzhou. He frowned and said, "In summary, big money can't be made, and small money is not valued. It's not like Shandong, which wants to make big money and doesn't let go of small money."

"The prefect of Xuzhou did a terrible job."

Zhu Yijun was very dissatisfied with Xuzhou. Now Xuzhou was in the territory of Nan Ya, but he saw the problem as soon as he arrived.

Shandong wants to make big money. For example, the Mizhou Maritime Customs makes big money. However, places that are not within the radiation range of the Maritime Customs' economic zone are also willing to make small money. They are willing to make money from kelp, cotton, and iron smelting. If they cannot make big money, they can make small money. Zhu Yijun can see the vitality of that kind of development.

But Xuzhou can't see it.

Zhu Yijun continued, "To be specific, the people are generally dissatisfied with the government. This is a very common problem. It is not just in Yizhou. In Xuzhou, when the government is mentioned, the people frown. They are not dissatisfied with any of the six branches. They are dissatisfied with taxation, criminal law, public security, etc."

"This is the reason why the Xuzhou prefect is replaced every three years. He leaves before I even recognize his face. When the prefect is replaced, the legal advisor is replaced as well, and the six offices are also replaced. Just when things are quiet, they are replaced again. This has caused the government office to malfunction. The entire office malfunctions and cannot operate normally. Not to mention the common people, even the gentry can't find anyone to do something in the government office, so they can only make decisions on their own."

"Moreover, there were four prefects in these twelve years, and each one left a mess. Liu Changqing in the first year of the Wanli reign left a mess of the Yellow River embankment, and Chen Wuyin in the fourth year of the Wanli reign left a mess of coal mines. The next governor thought that the coal mines were not profitable, so he stopped and started to work on the canal. The canal was only halfway developed, and the foundation was laid. Now Qian Zhiyi thinks that the city wall needs to be demolished."

"The orders change every day, and everyone from the powerful and wealthy to the poor and the coolies complain bitterly."

Zhu Yijun really felt the difference between Shandong and Nan Ya.

Moreover, there is no way to clean up the four messes in Xuzhou. Every person in office wanted to do something, but every time he gave up halfway. People who give up halfway for a long time will lose their perseverance and become discouraged. The same is true for this yamen. The four unfinished projects have made the yamen no longer trusted.

"The only thing that is done well here is coal mining, but this coal is not used in Xuzhou, but transported to Suzhou and Hangzhou along the canal. I am very dissatisfied. As far as I can see, it is all bare. There is not even a forest to provide shade. Without trees, it is difficult for the people to get firewood. At the coal market in Xuzhou, only firewood and charcoal are sold. There is not even honeycomb coal." Zhu Yijun added the specific reasons for his dissatisfaction.

If it was just a little rotten, it could be said to be accidental. This complete rot was even worse than Yizhou, which had a tobacco shop. At least in Yizhou, there were wind honeycomb briquettes available for sale at the coal market, and the masters in Yizhou City were no longer dependent on firewood. Xuzhou was busy digging coal, and all the coal dug was sold to Suzhou and Hangzhou.

"As for the bureaucratic issues, there are many cases of corruption, bribery, mutual protection, and the like." Zhu Yijun tapped the table and said, "Sir, do you think that Xuzhou is the only place that is corrupt, or is the entire Southern Court like this?"

"This is true for all the thirteen prefectures in the Southern Court." Zhang Juzheng did not shy away from this question, nor did he make excuses for his disciple Li Le.

Li Le, the governor of Yingtian, was the key to Zhang Juzheng's defeat of the Jin Party in the early years of the Wanli period. Li Le was capable enough, but he just couldn't do it well. If it weren't for Shen Shixing's help, Li Le would have fallen when the slaves in Jiangnan rebelled and fought in Sochi.

I'm really too busy.

"Your Majesty, the Southern Court originally consisted of fourteen prefectures. Now Songjiang Prefecture has been separated out, and it is better to separate the remaining thirteen prefectures." Wang Chonggu did not take advantage of the situation to retaliate against Li Le, because if Li Le really fell, the same situation would happen if the Jin Party or the Labor Party took over.

By then, Wang Chonggu will also be in trouble.

Wang Chonggu thought for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, although the Southern Court is rich, it is a cesspool of officialdom. Whoever comes here will be in trouble. Someone must control this cesspool."

Yingtian is the temporary capital. In terms of system, it is the capital and has six ministries, the Censorate, etc. The fourteen prefectures in the Nanjing area are so messed up that even Hai Rui couldn't handle it. It's better if someone is in charge of this cesspool.

If the thirteen prefectures of Nan Ya are not demolished, Nan Ya will never be well.

Zhang Juzheng then continued, "Your Majesty mentioned that the four prefects of Xuzhou left four pitfalls. Why were they promoted in three years? Because after three years, they could be promoted to officials in the six ministries of Yingtian, and then directly enter the capital. This is completely different from the promotion of prefects, councilors, and provincial governors in other places. These officials have no intention of doing specific things well. No matter what they want to do, three years is not enough. What can they do?"

"Even though Ling Bu Tang is capable, it would take him several years to get things done in Henan. The turnover of officials is too fast, and this is the mess."

Li Le wrote letters to complain more than once, complaining that the system of keeping the capital was a cesspool for the Ming Dynasty. Whoever came to the Southern Court to be the governor was just rolling in the cesspool, and it was difficult to get out cleanly. The key was this problem, which Governor Li Le could not solve locally. Only if the court made up its mind to do it could it succeed.

Zhang Juzheng could only persuade with kind words every time, he didn't have any better solution. Only the emperor could do something like splitting up the Southern Yamen.

Zhu Yijun tapped his fingers on the table, then stopped and said, "Legas once told me a story about the Roman Emperor Galba. He said that after Nero died, Galba succeeded to the throne. As soon as Galba succeeded to the throne, he executed two generals who were good at fighting. People generally questioned this decision, and then a proverb became popular in Rome: Once an emperor becomes an object of hatred, the good and bad things he does will arouse people's disgust and malicious speculation about him."

"Just like after Emperor Gaozong of Song killed Yue Fei, people generally became dissatisfied with him, so he had to abdicate the throne to his adopted son."

Song Gaozong Zhao Gou had no descendants, and his successor Song Xiaozong was an adopted son. Song Gaozong's abdication was reluctant, and Song Xiaozong felt very aggrieved as an emperor.

What Li Yashi actually wanted to say was the trust trap. Once the government office fell into a trust crisis and lost its credibility, the truth, lies, good things and bad things would all be lies, deception and evil.

The people of Xuzhou have fallen into this trust trap. No one cares what the Xuzhou government does. They think that you will not be able to get it done and will leave a mess behind.

We just get by with our lives, no matter how good or bad it gets, we can get by.

"Suining is bad, Pi County is bad, and Tongshan County is both bad and bad. This is what the people said, not me who made up Xuzhou." Zhu Yijun's brows were twisted into knots. He released the imperial guards, and the imperial guards told the emperor that the people were dissatisfied not only with the prefectural government, but also with the county government.

The prefect was changed every few days, and when the prefect was changed, the county magistrate would also change his direction. As a result, the entire Xuzhou had not developed much since the Wanli Reform. The only coal that could be produced came out of Xuzhou.

"Your Majesty, there is a new development." Zhao Mengyou said with some embarrassment: "The imperial guards have discovered something. The trafficking in Xuzhou is very serious, and the human trafficking business is rampant."

Zhao Mengyou was unwilling to put pressure on the officials of Xuzhou, and even more unwilling to cause trouble for His Majesty. His Majesty had been in a good mood since leaving Beijing. Even when a opium den was discovered in Yizhou, the problem was solved. Wang Yi'e did not cover up or condone it, and even intensified the rectification of the administration of officials.

Your Majesty's mood became extremely bad after leaving Taierzhuang and entering Xuzhou. Zhao Mengyou really didn't want to make things difficult for Your Majesty.

But there were so many abscesses in Xuzhou that Zhao Mengyou had to prick them.

"What's going on?" Zhu Yijun leaned back. There were still some issues he didn't know about. He originally thought that the four unfinished projects were rare in the world, but it turned out that something even worse was happening.

"In Xuzhou, especially Fengxian County, almost every family has child brides, and many of them are from Sichuan and Guizhou. They come from the Yangtze River and then take the canal to Xuzhou. This situation seems to be very common in the Southern Court as well." Zhao Mengyou handed a written memorial to His Majesty.

After the situation was fully confirmed, Zhao Mengyou reported it to the emperor. At least in the several places that the Tiqi had passed through, this was the case. Every household had the custom of raising child brides.

"The situation is indeed serious." Zhu Yijun finished reading the memorial and asked with a slight headache: "In my opinion, Datong Prefecture is better than Xuzhou."

"Your Majesty, Datong Prefecture is poor, and it is entirely due to Xuzhou's inaction." Wang Chonggu still said a few good words for Datong Prefecture. Datong Prefecture is outside the Great Wall, outside Yanmen Pass and Juyong Pass. Its development is not fast enough, but it has not reached the point where human traffickers are running around openly.

In order to rule Suiyuan, officials in Datong and Xuanfu looked for human traffickers in their jurisdiction as targets. After all, the more they caught, the more promotion they could get.

At least the Datong women are quietly exiting the stage of history.

"Give the next chapter to Li Le. If you have any ideas, feel free to act on them. If anything goes wrong, I will cover for him." Zhu Yijun gave instructions about this terrible situation. Before leaving, he felt that splitting up the Southern Yamen was an issue that needed to be discussed. Now it seems that he seriously underestimated the seriousness of the problem.

We had just left Shandong and entered Xuzhou, and we encountered so many bad things.

Li Le mentioned more than once the normalization of the southern prefectures, which means making Yingtian Prefecture the only capital, and dividing the other twelve prefectures into three, turning them into normal four-level government offices such as the provincial administration, prefectures, states, and counties. This would be in line with the Ming Dynasty's fragmented institutional framework, rather than the current bad and chaotic framework.

The court has always felt that the problem is not so serious or urgent.

"It's also difficult for Li Le. He has been rolling around in such a mess for so many years, but nothing has happened." Zhu Yijun used to think that Shen Shixing was better than Li Le, but now it seems that the situation in Nan Ya is more complicated than that in Songjiang Prefecture.

The human trafficking business in Zhejiang was completely physically liquidated during the process when the Ninth Battalion of Zhejiang entered the city to suppress the bandits. This also blocked the human trafficking business's way south. However, the human trafficking business in the Huaihai area became more and more prosperous.

Now that things have come to this, the only option is to strike hard.

Li Le wants to pilot the policy of dividing the country into different regions, and he can start now. It will be useless if he does not change the basic framework of the Southern Court and just focuses on Xuzhou.

Wan Shihe saw that His Majesty was upset, so he thought for a moment, took out a memorial, handed it to His Majesty, and said with a smile: "Your Majesty, the Governor's Office of Jiugang sent a congratulatory message. The scale of the Ming Dynasty's plantation in Java has finally reached one million acres of land."

"In Java, the crops can be harvested nine times in two years."

The memorial was written by Yin Zhengmao, the Governor-General of Luzon, on behalf of the Governor-General's Office of Jiugang, not by Zhang Yuanxun. Zhang Yuanxun was busy bullying Mang Yingli, and except for a trip back to Jiugang for supplies throughout the year, he didn't take care of any mundane affairs.

Wang Guoguang stood up suddenly, looked at the memorial and asked eagerly: "How much? How many years will it take?"

"Ninety percent harvested." Wan Shihe once again made clear the fact that Java Island could harvest ninety percent of crops in two years. This was not Yin Zhengmao making empty promises to the Emperor or using the special situation of a few acres of land to fool the court. It was really ninety percent harvested in two years.

The Minister of Revenue of the Ming Dynasty, who was used to harvesting once or twice a year, almost suffocated when he heard that he could harvest nine times in two years.

"Your Majesty, this place is suitable for farming. Such a precious land should be inhabited by people with virtue!" Wan Guoguang's eyes lit up. Of course Daming wanted the mine, but they could not lose sight of the main goal. Of course, they also wanted a place where they could farm!

As for what virtue is, let’s not discuss it for now. Anyway, the Ming Dynasty must have virtue, both civil and military virtues.

Thanks to the fertile soil brought by volcanic ash, abundant rainfall and high heat at low latitudes, Java has cultivated 10,000 hectares of land, totaling 42 plantations, and can achieve a maximum of nine harvests in two years.

The locals had no mature agricultural experience, nor did they master high-end agricultural techniques such as intensive farming. They did not cherish the land at all. They just threw seeds and left it to fate to decide how much they would harvest. After Zhang Yuanxun captured the city of Malacca, he began his expedition to conquer Toungoo.

Zhang Yuanxun had no interest in things like Wang Hua.

Guoxing Zhengmao, who was born as a civil servant, was very good at plantations and copper factories, but the third of Yin Zhengmao's two axes of rule in Southeast Asia was naturally the Ming Navy.

The pilot project was very successful, and in order to conserve the land, Yin Zhengmao also issued a special order that the land should not be over-fished, and only three crops could be harvested a year. The remaining three crops had to be used to grow crops such as soybeans to fix the fertility of the land. If the land was cultivated to the extreme of nine crops in two years, it would be ruined in a few years.

"Those with virtue shall live there." Wang Chonggu also agreed. If their hometown in Shanxi had such an environment, there would not be famine in Shanxi.

During the Yuan Dynasty, many Mongolian nobles grazed their livestock in Shanxi. Kublai Khan once issued five imperial edicts prohibiting the Mongolians from grazing in Shanxi, but it was of no use. By the end of the Yuan Dynasty, even places like Nan Ya were covered with pastures.

Overgrazing in Shanxi has caused desertification of the land. The land was originally not fertile enough, and coupled with desertification and abnormal weather phenomena, Shaanxi, Shanxi and Gansu have all become poor places. Agriculture is the foundation of everything, and without food, there is nothing.

If the Ming Dynasty could control more places like Java, its food crisis would be alleviated.

(End of this chapter)