Villager of Daming

Chapter 1272 Different Development Frameworks

"Slow down, don't rush. If you get tired, take a rest under the shed next to you..."

A long team was moving slowly along the road. There was a makeshift shed on the side of the road. Under the shed was a large iron pot with mung bean water boiling in it.

After the Beginning of Autumn, the weather at noon is still a little hot. It will take another half a month for the temperature to drop and you will need to wear long-sleeved clothes.

In another half month, when we harvest rice, the weather will get colder and colder, and then the temperature will drop below zero.

Nahachu's people, the Jurchens, and the Qiqili people were all on their way. They let the young and strong go in front and gave them shovels, pickaxes and other tools that were urgently transferred from Yingtianfu by boat.

The young and strong men kept their distance, each taking charge of a section, and repairing the road to make it easier for those behind to pass.

The road can be built to the riverside. Everyone can take a boat to the seaside and then change boats to enter the Yellow River. The current water level of the Yellow River can support the entry of seagoing ships.

The north of the Yellow River is Hebei, and the south is Henan. If you want to go to Hebei Province, that is Beijing Province.

Hebei had a small population due to the war, so both the Northern Yuan Dynasty and the Ming Army later needed to collect grain locally in Hebei.

The food that the people grew is gone, so they have to run away quickly. They can’t just grow food for others in vain, so they have to find another place to live.

This was because the people were prepared after knowing about the drought in advance, otherwise there would be even fewer people in Hebei, all of whom would have been driven away by the drought and locust plague.

People from the Northeast are just right for farming in Hebei. Throwing hundreds of thousands of people there can solve part of the grain planting problem.

The young and strong people were building the road in front, while the people behind walked slowly. They had to carry things from their homes, including livestock. They ate poultry while they were on the road, and killed them in advance to make smoked jerky.

These things were purchased by the imperial court and eaten by the people themselves, so as to minimize their losses.

Some people were in a hurry to get on the road, fearing that it would snow before they had time to settle down, which could be fatal.

The people in charge of the organization advised that everything would be easy once they got to the destination, but now they were afraid that people would die on the road before they got there.

"This migration must have cost a lot of money!"

Nahachu brought some important people and the team to the place of trade. He always wanted to go there in person to take a look, but he didn't dare to because he was afraid of being recognized.

Now we can see the local construction situation, which is more specific than hearing about it.

He considered how much manpower and resources would be needed to organize a large-scale migration, and in the end it was all a matter of money.

The fifth brother Zhu Su held a shovel in his hand and said: "According to preliminary estimates, the money spent on one person is three strings of cash, including building a house, tools, seeds, coal, cloth, and medicine.

By the time our people go there now, the expenses will have to increase. The court will have to spend two million strings of cash. Under normal circumstances, it will take at least five years to get a payback.

In the past, you were exempted from land taxes and labor service for five years, and the money we earned from you during these five years was little.

Everything will be fine after five years. You will have to pay land tax and take out one month every year to do work assigned by the court without any extra wages.

We are planting cucumbers now so that we can eat them after the snow falls. Once you leave, they will be hard to sell!"

"I ate greenhouse cucumbers last winter, but they were not very fresh. They were far away and the road was difficult to travel. Fortunately, I had a sled.

Can the imperial court come up with so much money? Two million strings of cash is not a small sum, and everyone thought they could get by on their own!
I didn't expect the court to give so many things, and have people help make bricks and build houses. We don't have many brick and tile houses here.

The cucumbers and eggplants in the fields now will probably be useless in another month!
How can we make money if we don’t collect land tax for five years? The grain belongs to us.”

Nahachu was in a vegetable greenhouse, loosening the soil. Some of the soil was used to grow seedlings, not to plant seeds directly after digging holes. The greenhouse required a survival rate, and if the seedlings did not grow, it would take seven or eight days to replant them.

He was worried about the Ming Dynasty court, fearing that his life would be difficult if the court ran out of money.

According to his understanding, two million strings of cash, or two million taels of silver, is not a small sum, which the Northern Yuan Dynasty could not afford before. It has nothing to do with the overall income of the year, but rather how much surplus there is.

The surplus was less than 2 million guan, where could they get it? The only thing they could do was to let the people find ways to migrate, such as exempting them from land tax and giving them some seeds, but they didn't care about anything else.

Not to mention that people were repairing the road and setting up sheds next to it to boil mung bean water, which required money to support the project. Did the Ming Dynasty really have enough money?

At the same time, he couldn't understand how he could make a profit without requiring labor service or collecting rent? Who would give money to the court?
"There is still a month and a half left. Before the Frost Descent, the gardens will be closed one after another. When the Frost Descent arrives, the ground will be empty and nothing will grow.

You don't have to worry about money. Your father has money, and with Xiaqiao Village, everything is arranged.

I have a lot of money now and I am spending it hard. By the end of the year, I will have spent all the money I earned this year.

As for how to get your money back in five years, you have to think about it! People grow food, and apart from eating some of it, they have to sell the rest to get money to buy things.

People don’t get paid for selling grain, but they have to pay taxes when buying things, and the price of the goods includes the tax.

The court would arrange for everyone to collect and process things, which would be purchased by department stores, which would then transport them elsewhere and sell them at a profit.

As long as there are people doing things, there will be surplus value for society.

The imperial court will not let the people sit idle. Every time the people make a transaction, the imperial court will earn some money. How much the court earns depends on how it operates.

In the process of buying and selling, people's wealth is gradually accumulating, and then they will live a stable life. Those who have constant property have constant perseverance!
Money needs to flow like water. Stagnant water will stink, but running water will flow forever, and the overall wealth of society will increase..."

Lao Wu's voice was very loud, and Qi Qili and others were listening around him. He taught them knowledge about politics and economics, and at the same time told them to be at ease and not to be afraid, because he would not steal their things.

"How did you live in the past? It sounds simple."

Nahachu, a first-rank official, understood what His Royal Highness the Prince of Wu said and found it easy to understand.

He was recalling the situation during the Yuan Dynasty. What was the difference? At that time, they also collected taxes and rents, and made people work for free.

At the same time, we also traded with foreign countries, traded with the barbarians, and traded with Goryeo. Where did the money go?

"It's the output of the same piece of land that is different, it's the things people can do that are different, to put it bluntly, it's the ability of the regime.

The Yuan Dynasty followed the same operations as the previous Song Dynasty, with slight adjustments, but it remained basically the same.

In our Ming Dynasty, someone told us what to do and everything was arranged, which was very different from previous dynasties.

The key lies in production technology and foreign trade policies. The things that previous dynasties exchanged with the barbarians were all luxury goods and were of little help to the people.

Now, we see what the people of the Ming Dynasty need and ask the foreigners to provide goods accordingly.

My father doesn't like jewelry and other things, and Xiaqiu Village says they are useless. The best thing is to exchange them for food, medicinal herbs and new species.

We also need oil, we can use it to process things, and when the rubber comes back, we can use other things like steam engines..."

This time it was Zhu Chong who answered. He was looking forward to an increase in the local population in Hebei, so that things sold along the Yellow River from Xi'an Prefecture could be consumed here. Otherwise, no one would buy things.

(End of this chapter)