Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 281: The mantis acting as a charioteer

"What you said is what I want to do."

In the big carriage, Zhu Di did not think that what Zhu Gaoxu said was an exaggeration.

The Sanyi Huihe River in the Song Dynasty and the war in the late Yuan Dynasty left the northern agricultural economy in a state of ruin.

Let’s not talk about anything else, let’s just talk about the two major agricultural provinces in later generations, Henan and Hebei.

During the Hongwu period, the number of acres in Henan was only 140,000 hectares, and that in Peiping was only 260,000 hectares.

One hectare is equal to one hundred acres, which means there are only 14 million acres in Henan and 26 million acres in Peiping.

Logically speaking, even if the arable land potential of the two provinces cannot reach the level of later generations, it must be restored to the 80 million acres at the peak of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Although the figure of 80 million acres is calculated, even based on the paper data, it should be no less than 43 million acres.

The problem now is that Henan and Beiping provinces do not even have a population of five million, so it is already very good to be able to maintain the current scale of cultivated land.

Therefore, moving the capital to Peking to reclaim Hebei and immigrating to Henan to reclaim the local area must be done.

Thinking of this, Zhu Di looked at Zhu Gaoxu: "How are you going to immigrate?"

"We can move the capital to Peiping, but for Henan, we can only forcibly move it." Zhu Gaoxu took a deep breath.

He really wanted the people of the world to have food to eat, but blind kindness could not satisfy the people.

"Zhili, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi, the two provinces of Beijing, have a population that has migrated for many years, but they still number 30 million."

"In contrast, the amount of cultivated land in the three provinces has reached more than 160 million acres."

"Father, you have seen that people farm. If they have cattle, horses and other livestock, they can cultivate more than ten acres. But if there are no cattle, horses and livestock, they can only manage four or five acres."

"Although this is the case, it can still make the people work to the point where they are exhausted and don't know how to heat up."

"The migration to the south of the Yangtze River must continue, and efforts must be intensified whether it is in the southwest or the Central Plains."

"In addition, we need to find the right time to plunder the Mongols in the north and plunder a large number of cattle, sheep and horses to help the people improve production efficiency."

"Not to mention other places, if Ulliangha in Modong alone can be recovered, then with the local grassland and the Ulliangha people's herds, it can provide the imperial court with at least tens of thousands of cattle and horses every year."

"If these tens of thousands of cattle and horses are thrown into any place, they can replace hundreds of thousands of people."

Zhu Gaoxu was talking about the issue of productivity, but Zhu Di's eyes lit up when he heard this: "Animal power is indeed a problem, whether it is for people's livelihood or for marching and fighting."

"I've seen your grandpa's horse administration in the past few days. I can't say it's not good, it's just that the results are too slow."

Zhu Di was not only the emperor, but also the former King of Yan and the first general in the north of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, he is very aware of the importance of horses and horse politics, and has long had the idea of ​​​​changing horse politics.

Military horses were an important military material in the cold weapon era. All dynasties in the past dynasties attached great importance to the raising and management of military horses. Therefore, there is a saying that "horse administration is the most important thing in the country".

The horse administration of the Ming Dynasty can be said to be the culmination of the previous dynasties, whether it was official, animal husbandry, army, herdsmen, animal husbandry, government and civilian animal husbandry, household horse law, Ding horse law, field horse law, tea horse law, and market horse law, all were involved.

Among them, the Yongle period was the peak period, but Zhu Gaoxu didn't know exactly how it became the peak period.

Therefore, Zhu Gaoxu was also curious about what policies Zhu Di would say.

"I told you..." Seeing Zhu Gaoxu's interest, Zhu Di immediately began to reveal his secrets.

To put it simply, the horse administration during the Hongwu period had already begun when Zhu Yuanzhang established his capital in Jinling. However, the scope of the horse administration at that time could only exist in Yingtian and other six prefectures and two states, and it mainly allowed people to herd horses.

However, these six prefectures and two prefectures are all farming areas in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The pasture land is narrow and there are no professional herdsmen. They are only part-time farmers, and their numbers are far from enough to meet military needs.

As the war moved northward, facing the well-equipped Mongolian and Yuan cavalry, Zhu Yuanzhang's desire for war horses became more urgent.

In the fourth year of Hongwu's reign, Zhu Yuanzhang established a full-time institution to strengthen the breeding of horses.

After the Battle of Lingbei, Zhu Yuanzhang, who realized the shortage of military horses, took a series of measures to increase the amount of horses.

First, Taipu Temple was established in Chuzhou, under the control of the Ministry of War. Later, five pastoral supervisors were added, with ninety-eight groups under their jurisdiction.

At the same time, Zhu Yuanzhang also formulated the law of raising horses, asking the people to raise horses together, and stipulated the number and yield of horses.

In the 28th year of Hongwu's reign, he issued an order: "Eleven households in the south of the Yangtze River and five households in the north of the Yangtze River should raise one horse."

However, this private horse-raising policy not only hindered the people, but also troubled the court.

In the 30th year of Hongwu's reign, Zhu Yuanzhang began to expand the scope of Ma Zheng and established Xingtaipu temples in Liaodong, Beiping, Shanxi, Shaanxi and Gansu.

The Taipu Temple itself only manages official and pastoral affairs, but the Taipu Temple in the capital can not only manage the official and pastoral care, but also the people and animal husbandry.

After all, the officials and pastors of each Taipu Temple and Xingtaipu Temple mainly raised horses for the officers and soldiers of each guard station and the remaining soldiers in the military buildings, which was an additional job imposed on the soldiers.

As a specialized military unit that produces food, the garrison army raises horses to offset the land tax. This is a disguised form of government subsidy to subsidize the garrison army to raise horses, which is the main body of the official herdsmen of Taipu Temple.

As for civilian herding, Taipus Temple distributes horses to private horse households for herding, and matters related to the horses distributed to private households are managed by Taipus Temple.

Faced with this situation, Zhu Di's idea was to establish Taipu Temple in Beijing, and the old Taipu Temple in Chuzhou was changed to Taipu Temple in Nanjing. The jurisdiction was still the original six prefectures and two prefectures, and the official, horse, civilian and animal husbandry areas. It is still within the scope of the Hongwu period.

For civilian animal husbandry, he re-established a horse-raising system based on the "horse-raising system". The whole system changed the form of horse-raising according to "households" to the form of horse-raising according to "population". At the same time, The reward regulations were changed accordingly and became a policy of “half field rent exemption”.

Of course, if there is a reward, there will naturally be compensation. If the stallion is raised to death and the number of breeding horses is not enough, compensation will be required. Although it seems that the people should bear a certain amount of risk, it is actually excusable.

After all, whether it is officers, soldiers or common people, the horses they raise come from the Ming Dynasty, which means that the horses raised by the horse farmers are all for free. Therefore, there are bound to be many people who do not pay attention to the raising of horses, and even pay attention to them. Military horses were worked wantonly, resulting in illness and even casualties.

Therefore, in addition to formulating reward regulations to increase the enthusiasm of horse farmers, Zhu Di's purpose of formulating compensation regulations is obvious.

It is nothing more than to increase the importance that horse farmers attach to military horses, so that they can do their best to complete the work of raising military horses, instead of laboring military horses wantonly, thereby minimizing the financial losses of the Ming court itself.

Judging from these alone, Zhu Di's horse administration is relatively complete and humane.

However, the clause "always making compensation" made Zhu Gaoxu frown. After all, he was too aware of the urinary nature of Ming Dynasty bureaucrats.

Moreover, Jiangnan is not suitable for raising horses, otherwise Zhu Yuanzhang would not let eleven households in the south of the Yangtze River raise one horse and five households in the north of the Yangtze River raise one horse.

Ma Zheng needs to be promoted, but it depends on the place. You must choose a place suitable for Ma Zheng.

If there is not enough pasture and land, raising horses will be a burden for the people.

Therefore, regarding Zhu Di's idea, Zhu Gaoxu said: "My father's idea is good, and you can try it, but I think you have to choose the right place and the right person to raise horses."

"The land south of the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River is actually not suitable for raising horses. The Hetao, Daning, Bohai, Shaanxi, Hexi, Beiping, Henan and other places owned by the imperial court are actually more suitable for raising horses."

"If we don't talk about anything else, let's just talk about the Jilin Racecourse in Bohai. The number of horses it can produce every year is almost comparable to that of Liufu and Two Prefectures in Jiangnan, and it can guarantee the output of more than 2,000 military horses every year."

"There are many such places in the Bohai Sea, which are not only suitable for raising horses, but also for raising cattle and sheep."

"Therefore, I think that instead of burdening the people of Jiangnan with horse administration, it is better to give it to the people outside the pass, to Peiping, Shaanxi and other places."

"According to my father's plan to raise horses, the more than two million people outside the Pass can raise at least one million horses, and they have much more land resources than the people in Jiangnan."

“The only thing we need to care about is tax exemptions and bean feed subsidies for them.”

Zhu Gaoxu's idea was a little simpler than Zhu Di's. He wanted to directly recycle the civilian horses issued to the six prefectures and two states of Jiangnan during the Hongwu period and hand them over to the people of Liaodong, Daning, and Bohai outside the customs, and be raised by the local people. horse.

The land outside the customs is large enough. Not to mention Liaodong, the pastures of Changchun, Jilin, and Zhaozhou in the Bohai Sea alone are enough to stock hundreds of thousands of civilian horses from the six prefectures and two states, allowing them to live a happy life.

The Jurchens outside the customs are not bad at raising horses, not to mention that since Halawu was buried alive by Zhu Gaoxu, tribes from Wuliangha have gone south to the Bohai Sea every year.

Zhu Gaoxu only found out about this matter after Yishiha wrote to Zhu Gaoxu a few days ago.

This group of Mongolians and Jurchens are all good at raising horses. If they were only responsible for raising horses, then they would definitely be able to take care of the horses comfortably. In a few years, they could turn hundreds of thousands of horses into dozens of horses. Ten thousand horses.

However, Zhu Di was a little reluctant about this. He communicated with Zhu Gaoxu: "I have to transfer the hundreds of thousands of civilian horses in Jiangnan to Shaanxi, Shanxi and Peiping. It is impossible to give them all to you."

"How much can father give me?" Zhu Gaoxu did not ask Zhu Di to give him all the people and horses.

"There are 124,600 civilian horses in the six prefectures and two states. How about I transfer 60,000 horses to you?"

Zhu Di discussed, and Zhu Gaoxu nodded: "Okay!"

Sixty thousand civilian horses is already a lot. If Zhu Gaoxu's professional horse breeding is followed, and coupled with the existing herd in Bohai, it is estimated that nearly 50,000 foals can be stably produced every year.

However, it would be a bit expensive to raise them according to his method, but Zhu Di's method is basically free of charge.

As the father and son were talking like this, the big train arrived near the East Palace.

Zhu Gaoxu got out of the car and respectfully saw Zhu Di off, then turned around and returned to the East Palace.

"Your Highness, are you back?"

When a voice sounded, Zhu Gaoxu saw a eunuch with a slender face and wearing a bullfight suit. This eunuch with an unattractive appearance and a slender face was Zheng He who Zhu Gaoxu begged from Zhu Di.

"How about it, have you visited Longjiang Shipyard?"

Zhu Gaoxu spoke and walked into the East Palace.

Zheng He followed him, half a body behind him, and kept responding:

"My servants went to see it. Longjiang Shipyard is already building a warship with 5,000 materials, but they are not sure whether the ship can be launched successfully."

"In addition, when I came back, I went to read the news about Jinzhou Shipyard. They have changed Jiulian City to Dingliao County according to your royal highness's decree, and are preparing to build a shipyard there."

Dingliao is also known as Dandong in later generations. For Zhu Gaoxu, the Northeast is rich in timber resources and easy to transport. Shipbuilding in the Northeast will not only promote local industry, but also facilitate the construction of other industries in the future. Therefore, he retained the Jinzhou Shipyard and also The Dingliao Shipyard was opened.

The Longjiang Shipyard has the highest craftsmanship in the Ming Dynasty. Once a large ship with 5,000 materials can be successfully built and launched here, Zhu Gaoxu will move some of the craftsmen to the Dingliao Shipyard to build sea-going ships there.

"Fujian's shipyards must also be built early. Although we have only built more than 200 warships, once the imperial court goes to sea in the future, they will need to meet the needs of the people."

Zhu Gaoxu walked into the Chunhe Hall, and Zheng He also wrote down his words.

"Your Highness."

In the hall, Yu Xin, Huang Fu, Xia Yuanji, and Hu Lun, who had been waiting for a long time, spoke up. Zhu Gaoxu also signaled to Zheng He: "Give me a seat."

"Yes!" Zheng He asked people to sit down, and Yu Xin and the other four also took their seats successfully.

Zhu Gaoxu sat in the seat where Zhu Yunwen sat a few years ago. Next to him stood Zheng He, facing Yu Xin and the other four.

Yu Xin, Xia Yuanji, and Huang Fu were sixty-five, thirty-five, and thirty-nine respectively.

At this moment, the three of them looked sad, obviously troubled by Zhu Gaoxu's major projects one after another.

"I know why you three have headaches..." Zhu Gaoxu got straight to the point:

"Dredging the Yellow River, moving the capital to Beijing, setting up a navy... and currently the abolition of military garrisoning in Shandong and other four capitals, and the annual supply of six million shi of grain outside the customs are all major events and all require money."

"When Emperor Gao was still alive, I often generated income for the court. Now I spend a lot of money, but it is not for personal gain, but for the court."

Zhu Gaoxu explained to the three people why he did these things, and at the same time he did not forget to comfort them.

"There are gold, silver and copper mines in Luzon, Japan and other places. Based on my observation of Shandian Mine, if we capture these places, the imperial court can make a profit of at least 2 million yuan."

"Your Highness!" Yu Xin couldn't sit still when he heard the word 'take'. He bowed and said: "The former Yuan Dynasty did not conquer Japan, but the result was very bleak."

"Of course I know." Zhu Gaoxu smiled and raised his hand to signal Yu Xin not to get excited, and explained at the same time:

"Japan's gold, silver and copper mines are mainly located on an island in the Whale Sea. Except for being used by them to exile some prisoners, no one has discovered the gold, silver and copper mines on that island at the moment, so it is very easy to seize it."

"Another copper mine, in Japan..."

Zhu Gaoxu said, looking at Zheng He, and Zheng He quickly hung up a map of Japan painted by Zhu Gaoxu.

This map, which is three feet long and wide, almost includes the Ming Dynasty, Korea, and Japan. Two places are circled by a red pen, one is Sado Island and the other is the Iwami area.

"Please see, this Treasure Island (Sado Island) is almost uninhabited, and I have already asked people to build a post road. In the future, you can go to Treasure Island via Triton (Vladivostok)."

Zhu Gaoxu pointed dogmatically at various place names on the map. These place names were all marked and were easy to understand.

"In addition, there are gold and silver mines in the Iwami area of ​​Japan, but the area belongs to Japan's mainland, and we will definitely not be able to mine gold and silver mines. Therefore, I am planning to build a navy and prepare for Zheng He to go to Japan with the navy."

"First, it can demonstrate China's national power and intimidate Xiaoxiao."

"Second, we can establish tribute trade and use a small amount of gold and silver to purchase the Oki Islands in the north of the Iwami area and establish a long-term commercial port there."

"Third, a small number of troops can be stationed to protect the court's interests in Jinghai and Yinqi."

Because of the map, Zhu Gaoxu's attitude towards Japan was easy to understand. Although the three ministers did not support it after hearing this, they were not as opposed as before.

Seeing the change in the attitude of the three people, Zhu Gaoxu also asked Zheng He to hang up the map of Nanyang.

It is still painted by Zhu Gaoxu. Although it is not as accurate as later generations, there is generally no problem.

Zhu Gaoxu put his doctrine in Guangzhou, and then pointed to Luzon: "Start from Guangzhou to Luzon, and then conduct the first voyage to the West in Nanyang. The court's goods can be exchanged for many corals, spices and pearls in these places."

"After these things are brought back, they will at least bring millions of dollars in income to the imperial court. This alone can solve the problems of the Northeast and the construction of Beijing. With the addition of Eastern trade, there is no need to worry about dredging the Yellow River."

"At the same time, there are a large number of overseas Chinese in Luzon. The imperial court can recruit overseas Chinese to set up yamen and make them responsible for local mineral mining. The imperial court only needs to train them and provide weapons and armor."

"Based on the local situation, I estimate that the trade can bring back hundreds of thousands of guan in the first year. As long as gold, silver and copper mines are found in the future, at least 500,000 to 600,000 guan will be brought to the capital every year."

Zhu Gaoxu briefly explained his confidence, but Yu Xin and the others frowned.

I don't blame the three of them for being suspicious, it was because Zhu Gaoxu's tone was too relaxed, as if he was just picking up money when he went out.

He has two to three million guan here, hundreds of thousands guan over there, millions of guan on the other side...

These strings of numbers were like pieces of pie, falling heavily on the heads of the three of them.

"Your Highness..." Yu Xin pondered for a moment and then bowed slowly: "It's not that I don't trust Your Highness, but that there really is no such precedent."

"It's been there since the beginning." Zhu Gaoxu chuckled. He naturally knew that sailing to the West was difficult, but even this difficulty could be overcome by the Ming Dynasty.

Historically, Zheng He was able to make seven voyages to the Western Seas with his five thousand treasure ships, blunderbuss, short soldiers, and muskets. Now that he has cannons and matchlock guns, if he cannot even make the seven voyages to the Western Seas, then what will he do? He just wiped his neck.

"Excuse me, Your Highness, how many years will it take for such investment?"

Seeing Zhu Gaoxu's confidence, Yu Xin could only say helplessly: "Since May, the imperial court has spent tens of millions of dan on adjusting grain to Liaodong, preparing for the enthronement, and rewarding ministers."

"The treasury left by Emperor Taizu Gao only has more than 32.4 million shi. In addition, Your Highness has to pay taxes with banknotes for a year. Your Majesty has also exempted more than half of the world's taxes..."

Yu Xin took a deep breath: "The annual income of the imperial court this year is probably less than 20 million dan, but the basic expenditure is no less than 24 million dan."

"Coupled with what you have done, I am afraid that ten million stones will be allocated from the treasury next year to make up for the shortfall."

"Even if taxes are restored next year, according to the current way of spending, we will be left with nothing in five years at most."

The Ming Dynasty had an annual surplus of more than 12.8 million shi, but after Zhu Gaoxu abolished the military camps in Liaodong, Daning, and Shandong, this surplus would drop to 12 million shi.

Adding in the grain needed by Liaodong every year, this surplus will drop to about five million shi.

If we deduct the fixed expenses of building Beijing, dredging the Yellow River, increasing the navy, etc., then we will be losing about 6 million shi every year.

Thirty-two and four hundred thousand dan was indeed only enough to save Zhu Gaoxu for five years.

"Five years is enough time."

Zhu Gaoxu is naturally aware of his lavish spending, but he also knows that the money he should spend must be spent.

After the money is spent, once things are on track, it will be time to get feedback in the future.

"How is the reclamation situation in the Northeast?" Zhu Gaoxu turned his head and looked at Zheng He.

Now that Shiha is gone, Zheng He is not only busy with the naval warships, but also responsible for the trivial matters around Zhu Gaoxu.

Sun Cheng is now in charge of the Northeast Reclamation. He single-handedly handles Shandong Immigration and Northeast Reclamation, as well as resettlement and other matters, and is extremely busy.

Fortunately, many students from Bohai have gone out, enough to help him cope with the statistics of tens of thousands of immigrants and local reclamation every month, so Sun Cheng will send literature to Zhu Gaoxu every month.

"More than 286,200 acres were reclaimed in May." Zheng He said with a sigh, and this amount also made Yu Xin and others look surprised.

Obviously, they did not expect that the Northeast would be reclaimed so quickly.

"There are too few livestock, otherwise we can go faster." Zhu Gaoxu spoke to everyone and said at the same time:

"I just talked about the horse administration with His Majesty, and decided to divide the civilian horses in the six prefectures and two states of Jianghuai into two parts, and send them to the north and outside the pass respectively, so that the people in the north and the people outside the pass can raise horses for the imperial court."

"If these horses go to Liaodong, they will be able to cultivate at least tens of thousands more acres of farmland every month."

"I understand that you care about food, but the rewards given to us by the people of Liaodong are not low."

Zhu Gaoxu said to Yu Xin and others: "The consumption of five hundred thousand shi of food per month is indeed very large, but compared with the speed of nearly 300,000 acres of land reclamation every month, this consumption is nothing."

"As long as we persist for one more year, millions of acres of more arable land will be created in Liaodong, and hundreds of thousands of more fields will be created in the future."

"I understand..." Yu Xin bowed, but he hesitated: "It's just that there are many people in the DPRK who have criticized this matter."

Obviously, there was a backlog of dissatisfaction in the temple about Zhu Gaoxu's use of millions of stones of grain in the pass to develop the Northeast, otherwise Yu Xin and the others would not have come over.

The three of them were the Ministers of the Ministry of Personnel, the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Industry appointed by Zhu Gaoxu on the day he entered the capital. Their reactions to the following situation were the most genuine.

Just hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu narrowed his eyes slightly. He had already given Jiangnan face, and the seven million dan in cash as tax deduction was only much more than what Zhu Yunwen gave them.

Seeing that Zhu Gaoxu was unhappy, Hu Lun on the side also quickly stood up and bowed.

"I came today to talk to His Highness about this matter..."

(End of this chapter)