Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 550

"The people of Yunnan were previously mainly engaged in hunting in the mountains and forests and farming in terraced fields, and were not good at weaving."

"Therefore, I think that people can plant mulberry trees and raise silkworms, and set up a Southwest Weaving Bureau to purchase silk produced by farmers and make silk into silk."

In the side hall of Wuying Hall, Xu Shuo was reporting his opinions on textile real estate in Southwest China and writing down his opinions for Zhu Gaoxu to read.

Zhu Gaoxu was reading and listening, and after a while he said:

"The roads in Yunnan are rugged. Although your words are good, what if the high freight costs lead to an increase in the price of silk and satin cloth?"

"It won't be like this." Xu Shuo bowed humbly and said:

"Many people in Yunnan live in the mountains. Although there are mountains where you can find meat and wild vegetables, and there are terraces where you can cultivate food, the terraces are only a few acres wide."

"If these slopes are used to grow mulberry trees, as long as the income from the output can be sold for more than the food grown on these slopes, there will not be a big problem."

"I have read the memorials of Jiang Huai, the Minister of Household Affairs in Nanjing, when he was serving in Longchuan in the past. It is found that six hundred mulberry trees can be planted per mu of slope land, which can feed five hundred silkworms and produce twenty kilograms of raw silk."

"Taking Jiangnan as an example, Jiangnan raw silk costs one hundred and sixty wen per catty. Although it has dropped due to widespread cultivation in recent years, it still costs one hundred and twenty wen per catty."

"The silk in the southwest is not as good as that in the south of the Yangtze River, but a hundred cents per catty is not a problem. In this way, two cents per acre of raw silk can be produced."

"The imperial court can purchase raw silk at eighty guan per catty, and then make it after deducting the freight. Three pieces of silk can be produced per acre, and the minimum price for selling it to the West is four guan."

"Excluding the remaining labor and material costs, each mu of mulberry land can produce three bolts of silk, and the mulberry household can earn six qian per mu, while the court can receive 5 qian, and the remaining nine qian are earned by the weavers."

"Of the 1.5 yuan earned by the imperial court, some transportation costs need to be paid according to the circumstances."

"However, there are millions of acres of sloping land in Longchuan. If all of them were planted with mulberry trees, nearly ten million pieces of silk and satin could be produced every year."

"Not only can it be sold to Central and South China, India, and the West, but if the railway technology matures in the future, it can also be sold to the north."

Xu Shuo was trying to impress Zhu Gaoxu. Tens of millions of pieces of silk were indeed not enough for the population of the Ming Dynasty, but how could ordinary people be willing to spend a few dollars to buy a piece of silk to make ready-made clothes?

Those who could afford to wear silk were only a few hundred thousand in the Ming Dynasty.

"Never mind the nearly ten million, but according to your calculations, the people in the southwest can support themselves on the slopes alone, which is beneficial to the country and the people."

"However, millions of acres of sloping land put together can only make the people of Longchuan prosperous, but not the people of the entire southwest."

Zhu Gaoxu put the memorial on the table and looked at Zhu Zhanhe beside him: "Prince, you have been to Longchuan to serve, what do you think?"

Seeing his father asking him, Zhu Zhanhe bowed and said, "My son thought that we could conduct an on-the-spot investigation to see which places in Yunnan and Xingdusi prefectures are suitable for planting mulberry trees and raising silkworms."

"Only Erchen came here and said that places such as Yongchang, Longchuan, Lincang, Zhenkang, Pu'er, Chuxiong, Menghua and other places are suitable for sericulture and silk production."

"Places such as Mengyang and Menkenken, for example, are too hot and humid all year round and are not suitable."

"In these seven prefectures alone, there are about 2 million residents, of which about 80% are farmers. Calculated, the number is 1.6 million, or about 300,000 households."

"If the people of these seven prefectures want to work together to get rich together, the imperial court can give each household a quota of five acres of mulberry land to grow mulberry, raise silkworms, and sell raw silk."

"But if we want people to change rice to mulberry, we still need to face a problem."

There are benefits to delegating Zhu Zhanhe as an official. Once the environment he is familiar with is discussed, he will have a general framework in his mind to conceive, so he can draw inferences based on Xu Shuo's suggestions.

Seeing that his father signaled him to continue speaking, Zhu Zhanhe regained some confidence and at the same time bowed to Xu Shuo:

"Just now, Xu Shangshu said that three bolts of silk can be produced from sericulture per mu of mulberry fields. This is based on the yield of mulberry leaves of adult mulberry trees. However, there are not so many mulberry trees in Yunnan at the moment."

"It takes about three years from the time a mulberry tree is planted to when the mulberry leaf yield becomes stable, and there are not many mulberry seedlings in the southwest."

"At present, apart from Longchuan, only around Chengdu can produce mulberry seedlings. I don't know how much Chengdu produces, but Longchuan only produces about 300,000 mulberry seedlings every year, and at most 50,000 acres of sloping land can be planted. ”

"Although Chengdu has been planting mulberry trees since the pre-Qin Dynasty, the output will not exceed one million plants."

"In addition, these mulberry seedlings cannot be transported from Chengdu to Longchuan, so we can only rely on Longchuan to develop Yunnan mulberry fields."

"Even if Longchuan's mulberry seedling production is expanded now, it will only be able to produce about 1.2 million mulberry seedlings next year, and at most 200,000 acres of sloping land will be planted."

"To expand mulberry production, we need to open up sloping land, which requires money, food and time."

"In addition, after the mulberry seedlings are pulled out, they need to be planted within two or three days. During this period, they need to be constantly replenished with water. Otherwise, given the climate in Yunnan, they will dry up and die in less than a day."

"Therefore, the imperial court could only order people in various prefectures to open up wasteland on slopes, and then allocate mulberry seeds from Longchuan, Chengdu and other places to sow mulberry seedlings, and then transplant the mulberry seedlings into mulberry trees."

"This can't be completed within five years."

"So how did these 300,000 households survive in the past five years? Does the court have the means to deal with it?"

After all, Zhu Zhanhe has worked at the grassroots level, and he is not good at machinations and tricks, but he still understands matters related to people's livelihood in a steady and steady manner.

Judging from his questioning of Xu Shuo's suggestion, Yang Shiqi and the others actually calculated it just right.

It took six years for the Huguang Railway to open to traffic. These six years were just enough time to open up wasteland on slopes in Huguang, plant mulberry seeds, and introduce looms to start construction.

"What His Highness said is true. I have already written down specific management measures in the memorial."

Xu Shuo bowed respectfully, and then continued: "I think that each household can open up two acres of wasteland and allocate two stones of grain to each household, so that the people can actively open up wasteland and sow mulberry seedlings."

"Although mulberry seedlings only require more than a million acres, other reclaimed slopes can be used to grow other fruits and vegetables, or rubber that is lacking in the imperial court."

“The yield of indica and japonica rice in paddy fields in Yunnan’s plains is only three hundred catties per mu, while the yield in slope land is no more than two hundred catties per mu.”

"If the imperial court orders that every acre of sloping land be cleared successfully, and if mulberry and rubber tree species are planted and they grow, they will allocate two stones of grain, there will be no shortage of people to open up wasteland and sow the seeds."

“This policy can not only attract the population to western and southern Yunnan, but also the yamen in eastern, central and northern Yunnan can also pay for the purchase of farmland from farmers to encourage their migration.”

"Subsequently, people were moved from the densely populated areas south of the Yangtze River to the eastern and northern areas of Yunnan to equalize land and enrich the Han population in Yunnan."

After Xu Shuo finished answering, he reported the account to Zhu Gaoxu.

"According to my calculations, within five years, the court will need to allocate approximately five million dan or more, and another three million guan to prepare for the purchase of land, mulberry seeds, rubber seeds, etc."

Three million yuan, five million stone grain...

With such a huge amount of money and food, it is no wonder that Jiangnanhui and Southwest have been arguing in the temple for so long.

Of course, what is more important is political performance and tax revenue.

Only when enough taxes are paid can local officials have sufficient political achievements and be promoted to the capital to serve as capital officials.

Competing for money and food is only the first point, the second point is local economy and political performance, and the third point is to increase the temple's voice.

Zhu Zhanhe was thinking about these things silently, and Zhu Gaoxu said after a moment: "It's not that much."

"Compared with money and food, what I care about is who has the courage to change Yunnan from rice to mulberry."

"Back to Your Majesty..." Xu Shuo pondered for a moment, and then said:

"The current right minister of the Ministry of Revenue, Zhao Gui, served as the chief envoy of Yunnan before and gave a lot of help to Longchuan in converting rice to mulberry. If he converts rice to mulberry in Yunnan, not only Yunnan officials will be convinced, but officials in Chengdu will not be convinced either. Make things difficult.”

Xu Shuo's thoughts were revealed. Zhao Gui was now the right minister of the Ministry of Hubu, and the next step up was the six ministers.

It is not difficult to see the current situation. Huang Fu, the Minister of the Ministry of Industry, and Jian Yi, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, are both almost seventy years old.

If Zhao Gui wants to go further, he will undoubtedly need to accumulate enough achievements within three years to replace these two positions.

Changing rice from rice to mulberry in Yunnan, which could increase the income of millions for the imperial court, was the stepping stone for Zhao Gui's future promotion.

"According to what you said, Zhao Gui, the right minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, will be appointed as the chief envoy of Yunnan to implement the national policy of converting rice into mulberry."

Zhu Gaoxu understood Xu Shuo's thoughts, but he was also happy to see it.

The general trend in the future is still going south. After all, this is the era of great navigation and trade. The north will suffer because of the freeze period and severe cold.

Therefore, simply supporting the north will not be enough to fight against Jiangnan in the future.

The southwest now has two sea outlets, Jiaozhi and Yunnan, and together with the conversion of rice to mulberry, it will inevitably become the cornerstone for the imperial court to check and balance Jiangnan in the future.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu also said: "Okay, if you have nothing to do, just retreat."

"I retire..." After getting what he wanted, Xu Shuo bowed calmly and left the side hall.

But when he walked out of the side hall, a familiar figure was waiting for him at the door of the side hall.

The figure bowed to him to congratulate him, but not many people could see him like this. The only one who could congratulate him was Wang Hui.

Xu Shuo frowned and left. Wang Hui was not angry, but just signaled to the eunuch on duty that he could pass a message for him.

"Your Majesty, the King, the Minister of Household Affairs, has come back to ask for an audience."

"Xuan!"

The sound came from the palace. Wang Hui bowed to the eunuch on duty and then walked into the palace.

This scene was witnessed by everyone in the palace. Yang Rong and others gritted their teeth but could do nothing against these two people.

At this time, Wang Hui had already entered the side hall and bowed to Zhu Gaoxu and Zhu Zhanhe.

"Your Majesty, this is the memorial for the restructuring in the north. Please read it..."

Wang Hui handed over a thick memorial. After the eunuch on duty forwarded it to him, Zhu Gaoxu picked it up and began to read it ten lines at a time. Since the memorial was too thick and could not be finished in a short time, Zhu Zhanhe took the initiative to offer a seat.

Wang Hui sat in his seat and waited quietly. As time passed by, it took Zhu Gaoxu half an hour to finish reading the memorial.

You know, with the speed at which he processes memorials, he can process at least twenty memorials in half an hour.

Wang Hui's memorial contains at least 20,000 words of articles. The memorial begins with the title "Pros and Cons of the Reform in the North" and goes on to mention in detail how to carry out various economic, political, military and diplomatic changes in the north. Reform measures.

Among them, the reform content determined in the economic plan was mainly for the imperial court to allocate money and food, and to concentrate the main efforts on the construction of supporting economic factories for all resource factories in the northern resource extraction.

According to the content of Wang Hui's memorial, the north will build about 372 medium and large factories with more than 500 workers along the railway based on the existing railway within ten years.

Since Wang Hui got Zhu Gaoxu's approval and could go to Taixue with his permission, he learned about the so-called light industry, heavy industry, and the technological products that may appear in the future. They have been born now, have not been promoted, or are about to appear. technological products, etc.

His memorial focuses on promoting northern heavy industry and light industry, whether it is steam locomotives, steam ships, coal mining, metal mining, non-metal mining, fertilizers, metal structures, cement products, other building materials manufacturing and other heavy industries.

Or light industries such as salt mining, wine making, leather, fur, furniture, paper making, ink, animal glue, glass, bicycles, clocks, hardware products, etc.

For all these light and heavy industries that have been researched but Taixue has not had time to announce or integrate them, or has not yet had time to reduce costs, Wang Hui is ready to put them into production in the north.

The mountains in the Northeast are high and the forests are dense. It is possible to make paper and furniture while opening up wasteland. They can also rely on the food produced by the northern farmland that is constantly being opened up to make wine. They can also collect animal leather and fur from the Northeast and grasslands to make products.

In addition, not only Taixue will conduct research, but various factories will also participate in research and reduce the cost of various commodities.

The output of steel, coal, and cement will double in ten years, and more than 300 medium and large-scale factories will emerge in the north, solving the livelihood problems of hundreds of thousands of people.

It can be said that when Sanyang, Jian Yi, Xu Shuo and others were still competing for the existing market in the Ming Dynasty, Wang Hui had already realized that he wanted to make the cake bigger so that the northern economy could overtake the southern one.

The current Ming Dynasty is only more than ten years away from the start of the industrial revolution. Overall, the industrial foundation of Ming Dynasty is still in a very weak state.

Therefore, even Zhu Gaoxu himself was very surprised that Wang Hui could write such a revolutionary memorial.

Many of the light industries written by Wang Hui are completely preparing for the success of future scientific and technological research and development. This is what attracted Zhu Gaoxu the most.

But at the same time, he hopes that these state-owned factories will also have the qualifications to develop and improve their own products. This is an issue that Zhu Gaoxu needs to consider.

He was still immersed in the content of Wang Hui's memorials, while Zhu Zhanhe picked up the memorials that Zhu Gaoxu had put down and read through them quietly.

Unconsciously, he was immersed in it, and he admired Wang Hui for being able to think of these things.

But gradually he discovered that these things were not discovered by Wang Hui, but some policies issued by his father.

What Wang Hui did was to make arrangements in advance and at the same time integrate his father's policies. After elimination, they were condensed into this memorial "The Pros and Cons of the Reform in the North".

Before he finished reading, Zhu Gaoxu had already said: "With this memorial, you should be admitted to Yantai..."

Building Yantai, casting golden bodies, and painting portraits are the highest honors for officials of the Ming Dynasty since Yongle.

Faced with such an honor, Wang just bowed and saluted slowly, and then said:

"There are still many areas that need to be improved in this memorial. However, my talents are no longer enough to complete this memorial. Therefore, I came here to submit the memorial to your majesty. I hope that after your majesty has perfected it, he will allow the imperial court to report it to the north." Make a revolution.”

Faced with Wang Hui's words, Zhu Gaoxu sighed.

He has been supporting the North over the years, but there are few people in the North who can support him with practical actions. In other words, the officials in the North simply cannot keep up with his thinking.

Now that Wang Hui has appeared in the north, although Zhu Gaoxu was previously wary of him, he can't help but feel lucky to have him now.

Zhu Gaoxu didn't have enough time, and he was unable to deal with government affairs every day. What's more, he also had to write books to pass on to future generations, so he wanted to read through the archives to understand the place and propose general economic reforms for the north. It is difficult for him to merge and do it.

With Wang Hui's memorial as the basis, he could make adjustments and arrangements for the economic reform in the north in a very short time.

"You expect this change to be completed in ten years. How much food will it cost?"

Wang Hui did not write about money and food in the memorial. After all, he did not know whether the memorial would be archived or whether it would be read by interested people.

Because of his actions, Zhu Gaoxu had already expected that this matter would cost a lot.

Wang Hui did not participate in the dispute between Jiangnan and Southwest because of this matter...

"According to my estimate, it will take about 50 million strings..."

The king bowed respectfully and then gave an answer.

This answer made Zhu Zhanhe's pupils tighten. On the contrary, Zhu Gaoxu had expected it and was not surprised.

Although many officials in the Ming Dynasty have accepted the new learning, their thinking has not completely changed. There are very few people like Wang Hui, and most of them have been gathered by Zhu Gaoxu to join the Imperial Academy.

However, this does not mean that just a few of the Imperial College officials are all Wang Hui. After all, there are too few people who can be as resourceful as Wang Hui and can govern the country with new learning thinking.

Although many officials have always seen technological products such as steam locomotives, steam ships, bicycles, rickshaws, and fertilizers, they are limited to understanding them. Not many people will go to the factory to ask about the cost of those machines, the time and process of manufacturing the machines, etc. .

It just so happened that during the years when Wang Hui was in Jilin, he had been walking around various factories, and at the same time learned about the situation in various parts of the north through Di Bao and memorials sent to him by Zhang Mengcun and others.

It is all because of this that he was able to write such a perfect revolutionary memorial.

The time required for a large machine is measured in years, and the money consumed is also counted in the tens of thousands.

Although the three major shipyards in the north have received funding, they are still unable to produce a single steam engine ship. They still need Taixue to send scholars to help them.

The three major shipyards are like this, as are most factories in the north.

Therefore, if we want to double the production capacity of northern resources and build more than 300 medium and large factories, this will cost a lot of money.

Wang Hui also waited for the imperial court to take action against the Sixteenth Merchant Gang and had enough finances before he dared to submit this memorial.

"This memorial will stay with me for the time being until I complete it and publish it. The revolution in the north will be yours to take charge of."

Zhu Gaoxu placed the memorial in a conspicuous place on the table. Upon seeing this, Wang Hui stood up and bowed: "I retire..."

Under Zhu Gaoxu's gaze, Wang Hui slowly backed away, turned around and walked out of the side hall.

As he walked out, Yang Rong and others cast curious glances.

The fact that it took up nearly an hour of His Majesty's time is enough to show that what Wang Hui reported was a very important matter.

Thinking of this, Yang Rong and others had their own thoughts, while Zhu Gaoxu in the side hall looked sideways at Zhu Zhanhe: "How about this memorial?"

"My son has been in charge of government for many years, and I have never seen such an ingenious memorial. Although there are traces of my father everywhere, if this policy is implemented, the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of people in the North will be solved."

“Not only that, but the North will also be able to take the lead in ten years and suppress the South.”

"If such a situation can be achieved, it will be very beneficial to the court."

Zhu Zhanhe gave a very high evaluation without hesitation. He knew that his father had been thinking about restoring the rule over the northwest during the Han and Tang Dynasties, but investment in the northwest required money, and the imperial court had also been investing in the north.

Under such circumstances, it was impossible to forcibly occupy the northwest because the investment in the north was too great, so his father would instead invest in the south.

If Wang Hui's memorial can be realized, the economy of the north will grow rapidly in the next ten years, and it can completely break away from the assistance situation in the south.

By then, I'm afraid it won't be the south helping the north, but the north helping the south.

"In ten years, I hope I can still hold on..."

Zhu Gaoxu looked at the memorial and secretly expressed hope.

He got the news yesterday that the third child, Zhu Gaosui, had been bedridden since winter, which made him feel anxious.

Of course, he was still more worried about Lao San's body than his own.

Although Zhu Gaosui did a lot of bad things when he was young, he was his younger brother after all, and the two of them had feelings for each other.

In addition, if something happens to Zhu Gaojiu, Zhu Gaojiu will be most worried about the old man.

Since returning from his last northern tour, the old man has been suffering from colds from time to time. Compared with his previous physical fitness, the gap is not small.

If something happened to the third child, the old man's health would continue to deteriorate, which worried him.

Thinking of this, Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help but ask: "Is the old man okay?"

"When Yue'er returned to the East Palace for dinner this morning, he said that he had recovered a lot. The doctors also said that he was fine and should be much better."

"My son is going to visit grandpa for a while and spend the night in Daming Palace."

Zhu Zhanhe was talking to Zhu Gaoxu, then he paused and said cautiously:

"Construction of Yongling Tomb has already begun. According to what you said, only 500,000 guan have been allocated for its construction."

"Besides, Chi Huan's body has been buried. It was buried in armor as you said..."

Zhu Gaoxu, who was about to turn fifty-two, inevitably began to prepare a mausoleum for himself, and the first person to be buried was Chi Huan, whom Zhu Yuanzhang had rewarded him as his battlefield brother in the past.

"Has the date been set?"

Zhu Gaoxu was silent for a moment before asking. Zhu Zhanhe nodded and said: "Previously it was just digging, so it will take half a month to build Chi Huan's tomb. It is estimated that it will be completed around the Lantern Festival."

"Yeah" Zhu Gaoxu responded, and then sighed: "I'll go and see for myself then..."

(End of this chapter)