Daming: The most ruthless tyrant in history

Chapter 744: Immigrants Filling the Border (2)

"It takes time to rectify the administration of officials and to curb annexation, but some things cannot be delayed or slowed down." Looking at the ministers who were interested, Zhu Youxiao continued.

"That is how to solve the problem of bankrupt self-cultivating farmers, exploited tenants, refugees forced to leave their homes, and even the increasingly serious problem of fleeing households!"

"If this matter is not handled properly, every time a disaster occurs, the court will have to spend a lot more money and grain for disaster relief, and even have to be on guard against riots or even civil unrest in the disaster-stricken areas."

"Your Majesty is wise!"

After hearing this, Lian Guoshi bowed and said, "It is better to ease the situation than to block it. For the court, blindly choosing to let it go and turning a blind eye will ultimately affect the country."

"If we can find a good strategy to properly resettle the above groups, not only will the local area be stable, but the court will also be able to avoid a lot of trouble."

"Your Majesty, I have a complaint!"

As soon as Lian Guoshi finished speaking, Wu Linzheng followed up and said, "To find a good strategy to properly resettle the above groups, I think it is wise and it is what the court must do."

"But the premise of resettling them cannot be to focus on building large-scale industries and workshops, but should be supplemented by them. Otherwise, in a few years, the Ming Dynasty will face a large-scale famine. Even though there are groups of Western merchants heading north in Tianjin, Denglai and other places, carrying grain from Southeast Asia, distant water cannot quench immediate thirst."

The atmosphere here is somewhat subtle.

Some ministers in the imperial court looked at Wu Linzheng with changed eyes.

Is this the time to play devil's advocate?

But what happened next surprised many people.

"What you said is exactly what I thought."

Many people were surprised. Instead of being angry, the emperor praised Wu Linzheng's words. "So I plan to solve the above problems and temporarily implement a policy of immigration to fill the borders in the northern provinces."

Immigrants filling the gap?

Many people who heard this became confused and even whispered about it to people around them.

"Immigration is no small matter. If we really want to do this, I'm afraid it will cost a lot of money and food every year."

"This is just the beginning of filling the border. It will cost a lot of money and food to settle these people and ask them to open up the wasteland, and this does not include the distribution of farm tools, etc."

"Filling? Where can this be filled to?"

"I'm afraid it's Liaodong. Apart from here, there aren't many places that can accommodate so many people."

"If this is the case, Liaodong must keep up with the construction of water conservancy projects and highways, otherwise the bitter cold land of Liaodong may not be able to support so many people."

"It's not impossible. I heard that Liaodong's previous trial of water diversion for rice planting has achieved considerable success. Although the per-acre yield is not as good as that of the southeastern provinces, the difference is not too big. This is a good thing for Liaodong."

Zhu Youxiao did not interrupt the ministers' whispers but watched them talk. After all, this was a very difficult task and if there were any accidents, it would be normal for some people to die. The most difficult thing to deal with was unrest or even riots during the migration. Once this happened, the places along the way would be in trouble.

"Cough cough~"

As a cough sounded, the ministers who were discussing quietly reacted one by one. "What you just talked about is indeed the challenges faced by immigrants filling the border." Zhu Youxiao smiled and glanced at the ministers in front of the emperor.

"But if this can be accomplished, it will not only solve the problems of bankrupt self-cultivating farmers, tenants, refugees, and escaped households in various places, but also strengthen the control over Liaodong, and even speed up the development and governance of Liaodong. This is a policy that benefits the country and the people. Of course, the premise is to do this well, not to muddle through!"

Under Zhu Youxiao's idea, the immigration and border filling program launched in the northern provinces was indeed mainly based in Liaodong. After all, there were too many places in Liaodong that had not been truly reclaimed.

"Your Majesty, do you want to use the state-owned farms opened up in Liaodong as the mainstay to attract immigrants from the north and connect them with other places in Liaodong?"

While the ministers were thinking, Wu Linzheng thought of something and expressed his thoughts.

“This is one of those things.”

Zhu Youxiao smiled and said, "Liaodong has more than just state-owned farms under its jurisdiction. There are also many official fields and even uncultivated wasteland."

"In order to ensure that the immigration can be smoothly promoted, I need to select a group of people from among you. Some of them will go to Liaodong to coordinate with the Liaodong Governor's Office. At the same time, they will maintain close contact with the joint branch offices assigned to Northern Zhili, Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi and other places. When a group of people are organized in their place of origin and set off for Liaodong, the joint branch offices in Liao will arrange the destination of each batch of immigrants."

"During this process, the Joint Branch Office in Liao and other local joint branches must urgently report the corresponding matters to Beijing and hand them over to the Joint Branch Office in Beijing for overall coordination. They will be responsible for solving all the money, food, medicinal materials and other needs during the immigration process. Well, after the implementation of this policy, the early grain supply will be mainly provided by the Imperial Farm Cleaning Office, supplemented by the Grain Storage Cleaning Office."

"As immigration is fully launched in various places, I will try to solve this part of the money and food expenses to ensure that no one dies of starvation or disease during the immigration period. I also said in advance that after the immigration is launched, the Supervision Department, the Internal Guard and other Qingli Departments under the jurisdiction of the Shaofu will be responsible for supervising this matter. At the same time, there will be others responsible for secret investigation. Since we have chosen to do this, we must take it seriously!"

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Immigration and border filling was definitely a big deal in the Ming Dynasty. After all, the Ming Dynasty had backward transportation and communications. If one wanted to organize large-scale immigration, various problems would inevitably arise during the process. So in response to this matter, Zhu Youxiao clarified many systems, and at the beginning of implementing this policy, he would try his best to reduce the scale of immigration to ensure that all places could adapt as quickly as possible, summarize experience, improve the system, and avoid bad things from happening during the immigration and border filling period.

"Your Majesty! I am willing to go to Liao!"

Under such circumstances, Wu Linzheng stepped forward and volunteered.

This made many people change their expressions.

If immigration and border filling are really to be carried out, then among the joint branches assigned to various places, the Liaoning Joint Branch will be under the greatest pressure. After all, it has to coordinate the matter with Liaodong and connect with the joint branches in various places. During this period, various troubles and problems will be encountered, and these must be properly resolved.

“This is a voluntary matter.”

While everyone was thinking about different things, Zhu Youxiao said calmly: "I have ordered the relevant files and documents to be sorted out. You can take them back and have a look first. The heads of various departments will gather together and draft a set of regulations first."

"During this period, anyone who wants to share my worries and the country's worries can ask their respective chief officials for help. The specific location of the work will depend on how the immigration and border filling will be carried out."

"I will obey your orders!"

All the ministers before the emperor immediately bowed and saluted.

The issue of immigration and filling the border is too big, so big that even Zhu Youxiao found it very challenging. So if this matter is really to be done, it is necessary to let a group of people who want to do it to push it forward, rather than relying on the method of appointing people who have complaints and dissatisfaction to do it. After all, the attitudes of the two towards this matter are different.

Getting things done depends on people, but success or failure depends on attitude!

Zhu Youxiao did not want such a major event that would benefit the country and the people to end in failure just because some things were not taken into consideration. This would be a huge blow to the court.

(End of this chapter)