Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 448 Moving the capital to Beijing
Time passes, just in the blink of an eye, a few months pass.

Financial shortcomings caused Ming Dynasty to restrain its actions in the thirteenth year of Yongle.

In addition to maintaining the Jiangxi New Deal and Guangxi's land reform and dredging of rivers, only railway survey is more troublesome.

Of course, these are all economic and political matters. If we talk about people's livelihood, then the new crop breeding at Taixue Agricultural College should be the main one.

After two years, the new crops brought back from Dongzhou were cultivated and selected, and some good varieties without any problems were finally selected.

The vast farmland east of Qilinmen in Nanjing was allocated to the College of Agriculture. More than ten kinds of crops, including potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, tomatoes, peppers, and peanuts, were sown on this land.

In addition, tropical plants and crops such as rubber, cassava, sweet potatoes, and cinchona trees are widely planted in parts of Cochin, Luzon, Old Port, Guangdong, Fujian, and Ryukyu Prefecture.

In most of these areas where tropical crops are grown, there are traces of Han people. Only the Han people in Ryukyu Prefecture have not been around for a long time.

Starting from the eighth year of Yongle reign when Zhu Gaoxu established the Ryukyu Prefecture and established Keelung Port and Keelung County, the Ryukyu Prefecture was actually controlled by the Han for only five years.

In the first four years, due to the presence of malaria and miasma, the Ryukyu guards stationed in Keelung Port did not dare to go deep, and basically used Changshan barbarians who transported Ryukyu every year to open up wasteland.

"Hey, they say people will die in Ryukyu, but it turns out they are all lies... Such a big yard belongs to me, and even the rich man in the town doesn't have a yard as good as mine."

Lamenting the cleanliness and tidiness of the yard, Lu Guan, who had lived in a mud house for the past eighteen years, had never thought that he could live in a yard like this made of stones.

The lumber is about the same size, and is basically shipped to places like Zhejiang and Jiangdong that need lumber.

"From today on, this is your home, and here is the key."

Now, they just want to spend the next six years and settle down in Ryukyu Prefecture.

Outside the city, tens of thousands of barbarians were cutting down trees and pruning branches.

He led Lu Guan to the courtyard and introduced as he walked: "In Ryukyu Mansion, houses are only calculated by the number of households, not by the number of households, so you are getting a bargain."

The wooden sign is one foot long and one palm wide, and is written in Lane 8 of Changhe Lane.

After burning for several hours, the ashes were collected and transported to horse boats on the river, and then transported to Songjiang Prefecture and Suzhou Prefecture through these horse boats.

After the words fell, the official turned around and left Lu Guan's home. Lu Guan immediately closed the door after the official left, turned around and watched his second wife entering and exiting the yard, with an obsessed smile on his face.

The official took Lu Guan around the courtyard and finally handed the key to Lu Guan.

If you hire workers to do these things, you will definitely lose money, but Changshan Man is a prisoner who was defeated and captured through labor camp. They need to labor camp for ten years before they can be freed.

"Can you write?"

Pushing open the courtyard door, an official in his twenties spoke to Lu Guan and handed him a wooden sign.

They threw the wood into the river through the rolling road, and then set fire to the weeds, shrubs and pruning branches on the ground.

On the way to the land reclamation, they discussed some interesting things in the past in their unproficient Mandarin, but after careful discussion, they still felt that the current life was good.

The official asked Lu Guan in Nanping Hokkien, and Lu Guan nodded: "No problem, no problem."

"Tomorrow I will take you to allocate the fields, but the allotment is based on head. You are the only one in your family, so you can only be allocated five acres, but the five acres are paddy fields, so you don't have to worry about not having enough food."

Ryukyu County had only been under construction for less than three months, but at this time, it had already built a city wall with a circumference of four miles, a height of two feet, and a thickness of one foot and six feet.

"This yard of yours is the same as other yards, with two entrances and exits, covering an area of ​​five minutes. It has a main house, two side bedrooms, two side rooms, one woodshed and toilet, four side rooms, and stables for pigs. A circle, a well.”

The official looked at Lu Guan's embarrassed look and asked specifically, but Lu Guan said awkwardly: "No, I haven't read the book..."

However, since cinchona bark was introduced to the Ming Dynasty, the pace of development of Ryukyu guards has also begun to accelerate, and the policy of immigrants from Fujian and Zhejiang to Ryukyu has also begun to relax.

"Well, I live alone." After the official said this, he continued to Lu Guan:

The 90,000 Changshan Barbarians are the capital that the Ryukyu Mansion can rapidly expand at the moment, and the emergence of Cinchona Bark has also calmed down the impetuous moods of many Changshan Barbarians.

According to the current progress, as long as they can survive until the end of the labor camp, they can basically save eleven pieces and settle down in Ryukyu Mansion.

Hundreds of Fujian immigrants walked into the city and were taken to their assigned residences by officials.

Although they work every day, since the appearance of cinchona bark, they don't have to worry about their work, and this kind of full food gradually makes them lazy.

Thanks to the work of tens of thousands of people, the jungle around Ryukyu Prefecture is retreating at a rate of dozens of steps every day.

Therefore, in the past five years, less than 20,000 of the original 60,000 Changshan Barbarians survived, and of the 120,000 Changshan Barbarians subsequently transported, less than 70,000 survived.

"I'm done, do you have any questions?"

In order to expand the living space of the Han people, Keelung Wei marched south and finally established Ryukyu County (Taipei) in the northern part of Ryukyu.

The officials helped Lu Guan write his name and hung up the wooden sign.

During the labor camp, their daily wages were three cents, and their food consisted of sea fish, vegetables and two kilograms of whole grains.

Lu Guan was one of these immigrants. He came from Nanping Prefecture in Fujian Province alone. Except for a suit of clothes and two taels of money from the original separation of the family, he had nothing on him.

"This is your yard. Just write a wooden sign and hang it at the door."

"Okay!" The official nodded and finally reminded: "The two main roads in Liuqiu County are Taoyuan Street and Liuqiu Street. There are sellers on the streets. You can go there if you are short of pots, pans, bedding, etc. Yes, but the price will be much higher than in Fujian.”

Compared with them, the Han people in Ryukyu County live very comfortably.

"Well, I'll write it for you. This is your name. If you want to read and write in the future, you can go to a primary school in the county. However, at your age, you will probably have to pay 500 in literature and miscellaneous fees every year."

"If you can't grow it, you can go to the Yamen to recruit Changshan Barbarians for five cents a day."

Of course, the land reclamation in Ryukyu Prefecture was not without incident. Even those living in the mountains of Jiaozhi would suffer from malaria and miasma without warning.

Lu Guan was dumbfounded by the "prosperity" in the courtyard and couldn't help but pointed at himself: "Am I the only one who lives here?"

He walked around here and touched there, and was very satisfied with the whole yard. He wished he could divide himself into several clones and fill the yard.

After waiting for more than an hour, Lu Guan walked out of the yard with the "heavy" amount of money in his pocket, and carefully memorized the information in the alley.

After walking a few dozen steps, he came to the main road.

Since he was illiterate, he didn't know which street he was on. In short, when he came to the street, he saw many grocery stores selling pots and pans, as well as vegetable vendors and butcher shops selling vegetables and meat.

The children of the poor have already been in charge of the family, and Lu Guan has always worked hard. If his eldest brother hadn't gotten married and had to clear the yard and separate the family, he might not have been asked to leave by his parents.

But now he is glad that his family has been divided. If his family had not been divided, he would not have signed up to move, nor would he live in a big yard, nor would he get the five acres of paddy field outside the city.

Facts have proved that the official's reminder was correct. Prices in Ryukyu County are indeed more expensive than in Fujian. After buying a set of bedding, a dozen pairs of bowls and chopsticks, two iron pots and some vegetables, Lu Guan only had two guan of money left in his arms. I have written more than 400 articles.

After his assets shrank instantly, Lu Guan couldn't help but feel a bit of toothache, but after thinking that he still had five acres of land, he went home happily and cooked himself a good meal.

Two kilograms of rice and a plate of fried cabbage with oil and salt. This was Lu Guan's wedding banquet to celebrate his move.

He put "a lot" of oil and salt on this plate of cabbage, which made it taste particularly sweet. He was even more glad that he came to Ryukyu.

If the family hadn't been separated, he would have only dared to brush the bottom of the pot with pig skin every day when cooking, and then would have had to stir-fry. He wouldn't have dared to put so much oil and salt at all.

"It's good to separate the families..."

Lying on the bed after eating, stroking his round belly, Lu Guan couldn't hide the smile on his face.

On this day, he was so excited that he didn't fall asleep until midnight. In the land allocation on the second day, he was also allocated five acres of paddy field less than 200 steps away from the west gate of Ryukyu County.

Ryukyu's climate allows for year-round farming, so after getting the paddy fields, he immediately marked his fields, went to the Yamen to recruit Changshan barbarians, and purchased rice seeds at the same time.

There are only about 200 households in Ryukyu County and more than 1,000 people, so the number of Changshan barbarians is enough for them to recruit, but it will take a lot of time to queue up.

When he arrived at Lu Guan, he recruited ten Changshan Barbarians with a wave of his hand. However, because he did not understand Mandarin and Changshan Barbarians did not speak Mandarin very well, the officials from the Yamen asked him what he thought and then talked with them. Ten Changshan barbarians began to explain.

The ten Changshan barbarians did not have any dialogue with him along the way. They just used the farm tools that Lu Guan bought yesterday and began to loosen the soil and release water in the paddy fields.

The efficiency of the ten people was very fast, and they managed to cultivate five acres of paddy field in just a few days. Lu Guan also dismissed them and spent a month cultivating seedlings. Finally, he recruited a few Changshan barbarians to help him sow the seedlings on the other four acres of land.

After all this work, Lu Guan only had less money left.

There are still four months until the rice matures. During these four months, he can only live frugally and get through this period first.

When the rice is mature and harvested, he can keep the grain he wants to eat and sell all the remaining grain.

In these days, hundreds of people come to Ryukyu County to settle down every half month. However, compared to this migration speed, Changshanman's land reclamation speed is faster, so the Ryukyu County government has a lot of mature land in its hands.

These cultivated lands are cheap and only cost one acre per acre. Lu Guan's current idea is to save money to buy land after the grain is harvested and sold, so that his life will get better and better.

If possible, he would like to return to his hometown to marry a wife in a few years, and then bring them to Ryukyu to live a good life.

It doesn't matter if you are illiterate yourself, your future son will definitely have to be literate, and the old Lu family will also have to thrive in Ryukyu and grow stronger day by day.

Thinking of this, Lu Guan, who was standing on the edge of his field, had a beautiful smile on his face as he imagined the future.

People like him are not a minority in the entire Ming Dynasty. From Ryukyu, Cochin, Luzon, Old Port to Ceylon, these places that have received policy support are undoubtedly the best opportunities for the poor to escape class. It's just that only a few people can seize such opportunities, and most people lose the opportunity while waiting and watching.

As for the direction of the policy, it is decided by Zhu Gaoxu in the Chunhe Hall, but now Zhu Gaoxu is not in the Chunhe Hall, but standing on the tower of Jiangdong Gate.

"Slow down, slow down!"

"Stay out of the way of ships ahead!"

Jiangdongmen Pier is overcrowded at the moment, filled with a large number of people dragging their families and families northward.

Since the Lantern Festival, a large number of Nanjing officials have been migrating north as Beijing continues to improve.

Before the Lantern Festival, Nanjing had more than 3,800 civilian officials, more than 4,300 military attachés, more than 34,000 officials, and a population of more than 765,000.

As of May now, the number of civilian officials in Nanjing has dropped sharply to more than 2,600, the number of military attachés is more than 2,900, the number of civil servants is less than 26,000, and the population is more than 623,000.

A move to move the capital brought a population of more than 130,000 to Beijing, and the prosperity of Nanjing also declined a lot.

"After these officials move, Beijing's prosperity will reach a higher level, but with it will come various situations of rising prices."

Standing on the city gate tower, Zhu Gaoxu looked down at the migrating team at the dock and explained behind him without looking back.

Standing behind him were Guo Zi, the Minister of Household Affairs, Xia Yuanji, the Minister of Rites, and Huang Fu, the Minister of Industry.

“How big is the population of Beizhili now, and how much arable land is there?”

Zhu Gaoxu asked Guo Zi, and Guo Zi thought for a while and reported: "The population is about 3.6 million, and the cultivated land is more than 32 million acres."

"Not bad, at least there won't be any problems in a few decades." Zhu Gaoxu nodded, but then commented:

"However, the northern frontier army currently requires a lot of food and grass. Relying on canal grain alone is definitely not enough. Can the three northeastern regions maintain it?"

The three places in the Northeast, namely Liaodong, Bohai, and Daning, are Zhu Gaoxu's basic base. Needless to say, there is no need to talk about local development.

"At present, there are more than 4.26 million people in the three places and more than 27.65 million acres. Even the yield per mu is not as good as that in Guan Nei. The annual tax on grain is about 2.2 million dan. The grain that the court can buy from the market No more than two million stones."

Zhu Gaoxu heard this and said without thinking: "In other words, the three northeastern regions can supply the border army with about four million shi?"

"This is almost the case..." Guo Zi nodded, and Zhu Gaoxu continued:
"How much daily rations does it cost to maintain the frontier armies in Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Peking, and Daning?"

Guo Zi was still thinking, but Xia Yuanji next to him said without thinking:
"The northern frontier army has a total of thirty guards. Counting the troops and horses in the hinterland of the northern capitals, including Bohai and Liaodong, there are twenty-four guards. The total is fifty-four guards, and three hundred and two thousand four hundred troops."

"For the twenty-four guards in the hinterland, it's okay to say that they can basically buy food at the station, which will cost up to 800,000 shi."

"The biggest problem is that there are only 30 border guards stationed at the border fortress. Although there are only 168,000 of them, including the losses on the road, each person consumes an average of twelve dan per year, and basically needs to transport 2 million per year. Only stone can satisfy their rations.”

"But in addition to protecting them, their relatives also need to be protected. Their relatives are about 500,000 people. The annual consumption is slightly lower, but it also requires ten stones. Including the consumption of the frontier troops, the total is seven million stones."

After Xia Yuanji finished speaking, Zhu Gaoxu nodded, very satisfied with the current situation.

At present, the Ming army has crushed the Mongols. Compared with the nine-border troops that often numbered six to seven hundred thousand in history, even if the Ming Dynasty includes all the soldiers and horses of the northern border army, it only has more than 32,400 soldiers. horse.

The nine frontier troops of six to seven hundred thousand troops have three to four million family members behind them. They consume tens of millions of grains every year, but the current 160,000 frontier troops and their families only need seven million dan. .

The replacement of weapons and combat power allowed the Ming army to use a small number of troops to garrison the northern frontier, and the food consumed also dropped geometrically.

Seven million frontier army grains can satisfy four million shi in Northeast China alone, not to mention Beiping, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Gansu.

Zhu Gaoxu did the math and found that the nine-sided military expenditure after the Zhengtong period basically accounted for 50% of the Ming Dynasty's finances, but now it is less than 20%.

Once trains can run, this ratio will decrease because the loss of materials will be greatly reduced.

"Based on the current situation of the imperial court, only one hundred soldiers and 560,000 soldiers are needed to maintain the territory."

"Therefore, I suggest that Your Highness may disarm and reduce military expenditures as appropriate..."

As he got closer to Zhu Gaoxu, Xia Yuanji's vocabulary began to favor Zhu Gaoxu.

Zhu Gaoxu is also considering his suggestion.

"The original field guards of the thirteen capitals in the two capitals need to be abolished. Except for the frontier capitals, the other guard posts only need to maintain three guards. Except for the two capitals, the nine capitals only need 27 guards."

"The two capitals have twenty-six guards in the upper Zhili. The northern and southern Zhili have eight guards each, and the capital has five guards each."

"Bohai, Liaodong, and Sichuan can have four guards, Daning and Gansu, Shaanxi, and Shanxi can have five guards, Jiaozhi has eight guards, Yunnan has ten guards, Uszang has two guards, and each of the four overseas Xuanwei divisions has two guards. A guard."

"In addition to this, plus the Navy's 17th Guards and Four Guards, the total is 130 Guards and Four, about 730,000 troops."

Zhu Gaoxu expressed his thoughts, but Xia Yuanji frowned and said: "If this is the case, then the annual military pay will be as high as 14.6 million guan. Counting the food and drink of the soldiers and horses, it will be no less than 20 million guan, occupying sixty million yuan of the imperial government's finances." become……"

Xia Yuanji wanted to control military spending below 50% of the total fiscal budget, so Zhu Gaoxu's suggestion obviously exceeded his budget.

"After the establishment of the Oriental trade, the value of gold and silver that can be obtained from the Orient every year will not be less than five million guan. You can add this to it."

"Five million strings?" Xia Yuanji frowned, but shook his head and said:
"Even if there is an inflow of five million gold and silver, if this continues for 20 to 30 years, the domestic money shortage will end, and the influx of gold and silver will only become a burden."

"You forgot to calculate population growth." Zhu Gaoxu interrupted Xia Yuanji and continued:
"The influx of gold and silver will indeed cause inflation. Given the current money shortage in the imperial court, it will stabilize in just twenty years."

"The influx of gold and silver will inevitably become a burden to the court."

"But if the imperial court's population increases by more than two million every year, then these gold and silver are not a burden, but the currency needed to maintain the economic market."

Historically, countries such as Spain did experience inflation due to the influx of large amounts of gold and silver, but this was because the Spanish aristocrats did not invest gold and silver in improving productivity, but used it to satisfy their own selfish desires.

The influx of currency, coupled with the casualties of the Thirty Years War, resulted in a smaller and smaller population, more and more gold and silver, no improvement in productivity, and no new markets emerging. Spain would have trouble if it did not have inflation.

Compared with Spain, the situation in the late Ming Dynasty was a shortage of silver, but the problem was not just a shortage of silver, because at that time, like other parts of the world, there was also a serious depreciation of silver.

The Thirty Years War and the shogunate's seclusion led to a decrease in the amount of silver flowing into the Ming Dynasty. The massive accumulation of silver by the gentry made it difficult for large amounts of silver to enter the market and circulate.

At that time, many celebrities believed that silver should be abolished. Taking Huang Zongxi as an example, the main reason why he advocated the abolition of silver was that silver at that time was excessively concentrated in the hands of the powerful gentry. There was insufficient silver in society and it had lost its circulation role.

He advocates scrapping silver, but he actually wants to eliminate the wealth distribution function of silver.

In Huang Zongxi's view, this extremely valuable precious metal has increased the gap between the rich and the poor in society.

Of course, there are also people who hold the opposite attitude to Huang Zongxi. For example, Song Yingxing believes that the reason for the poverty of the country is not the lack of silver, but the lack of social materials and the lack of circulation of gold and silver.

Therefore, banning silver cannot fundamentally solve the problem, and this is indeed in line with the general environment of plagues and disasters at that time.

In Zhu Gaoxu's view, both of them have certain truths, but the most important thing is that too much silver is concentrated in the hands of powerful gentry.

Silver could not circulate. If the court wanted to continue Zhang Juzheng's whipping method, it could not continue because the people did not have enough silver.

In Zhu Gaoxu's opinion, this method can be used to distribute money to the people in the form of work-for-relief.

The situation in the late Ming Dynasty was that overseas gold and silver were controlled by powerful gentry, and the court could not tax them, so it could not get enough gold and silver.

But if overseas silver is directly controlled by the court, then the court has the power to distribute it.

This is similar to the release of water, using infrastructure to improve the environment and productivity, and then releasing silver to the people at the same time as the infrastructure is built. The people will use the silver after they get it, and the silver can be circulated.

Now that the imperial court controls the entire trade in Nanyang and Daming Yang, the real gold and silver from these places will flow into the hands of the imperial court.

The powerful gentry wanted to obtain gold and silver, and they could only obtain it in the West. Even if they hoarded their three melons and two dates, they would not be able to disrupt the market.

The influx of six to seven million silver every year, as long as it is properly distributed, will generally do more good than harm to the Ming Dynasty's economic market.

Moreover, since the construction of the hospital began, the neonatal mortality rate in various places has also begun to decrease. Last year alone, more than 2.24 million newborns survived in the Ming Dynasty.

In comparison, seven million taels of silver is indeed not enough.

Historically, the money shortage in the Ming Dynasty lasted from the beginning of the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Ming Dynasty. Except for local disasters and the reduction of food and material production that caused local inflation, there was no inflation in the Ming Dynasty as a whole, so Zhu Gaoxu was not worried about inflation.

As for local inflation, as long as trains and railways can cover the two capitals and fourteen provinces, this kind of inflation can also be solved through central material deployment.

Looking at Xia Yuanji, Zhu Gaoxu reminded: "As long as gold and silver are used for practical purposes, there is no need to worry about inflation."

"The only things we really need to worry about are banknotes like treasure banknotes, and these banknotes can also be produced with gold and silver as anchors."

After the words fell, Zhu Gaoxu also smiled and said: "Of course, I may be wrong, but I still have to take it step by step."

"If we don't mine overseas gold and silver, we'll leave it to others to mine. Rather than letting others mine it, it's better for us to mine it ourselves."

"If it doesn't work, keep an eye on the market. If there is any adverse reaction, we will deal with it immediately."

Zhu Gaoxu patted Xia Yuanji on the back and then walked down the tower.

Xia Yuanji, Huang Fu, and Guo Zi looked at each other and shook their heads helplessly...

(End of this chapter)