The Ming Dynasty started with saving the eldest grandson

Chapter 357 The Emperor is a Prodigal Son
After understanding the real situation, Lao Zhu said nothing more. He took the vegetable dumpling and started eating.

It tastes sour and salty, without any greasiness, and has a bland taste that is difficult to swallow.

But Old Zhu and Madam Ma remained calm and ate it all with gusto.

This made the old men even happier. Although the couple is rich now, they are not the kind of people who forget their roots. This is not bad.

So after the meal, everyone did not disperse but continued chatting.

"Brother, why are you here instead of staying at home and enjoying your life?"

Old Zhu used the excuse he had prepared long ago: "My family runs a cloth shop. The cotton cloth and silk in Suzhou are famous for their quality. I came here to buy some to take back."

The old men were very happy to hear their hometown was praised: "Brother, you have good vision. The silk and cotton fabrics here are all sold overseas."

"My wife and daughter-in-law are all skilled weavers. Every year, the money they earn from selling cotton cloth is almost as much as the output of 20 mu of paddy fields."

Old Zhu raised his eyebrows and said, "Oh, can the income from selling cloth be so much?"

The old man swore, "Yes, of course not."

"Merchants come to the village every day to buy cotton cloth. The cotton cloth is already ordered while it is still on the loom."

"If I were not clumsy, I would have sat on the loom for twelve hours a day."

The bald old man complained: "Because cotton cloth can be sold for money, many families here no longer grow crops and grow cotton instead."

"These people are just greedy for money. They make a fuss after just a few days of good life."

"If no one grows crops, what will people eat? In years of disaster, even if you have money, you can't buy food."

When this matter was mentioned, a group of old people started cursing.

In particular, most of the villages that had switched to growing cotton were military households or those resettled by other ethnic minorities, which made the group of elderly people very angry.

"They have ruined the best land. If the emperor knew about this, he would chop off their heads one by one."

Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma could only appease her helplessly.

This is the policy of the imperial court, and they really can't say anything about it.

When the military system was reformed, military households were dispersed and resettled throughout the country, with quite a few in the Jiangnan region.

The military was relatively well-informed, especially about Zhu Xiongying's plan to send a comfort envoy and Chen Jingke's plan to govern the army in a civilized manner.

While giving political lessons to soldiers, it is inevitable to talk about other things.

Therefore, the military is more open-minded in terms of ideology.

Soldiers with more open minds will naturally influence their families, so these military villages are more open than traditional villages.

While ordinary villages were still happy about harvesting an extra three or five buckets of grain, they had already begun to switch to growing cash crops.

The silk from Suzhou Prefecture is world-famous, so they raise silkworms and reel silk.

Because the rise of maritime trade led to a shortage of cotton cloth, they switched to growing cotton and engaging in the textile industry.

As for the ethnic minority villages, they were some barbarian tribes that surrendered to the Ming Dynasty and were dispersed and settled in various parts of the Ming Dynasty.

For example, the various ethnic groups in Liaodong, and some Mongolian tribes that surrendered.

There were also some local barbarian tribes who migrated to the plains and settled there under the protection of the Ming Dynasty's policies.

The imperial court gave them Chinese names, made them wear Chinese clothes, eat Chinese food, and the people they were surrounded by were all Han people. At most, they became Han people in one or two generations.

What, are you afraid that they will cause trouble?
Sorry, there is a Junhu village next to the alien village, let’s try to mess it up.

The foreigners are generally not good at farming. Compared with growing crops, they prefer to grow mulberry trees and raise silkworms.

So this situation occurred locally.

Ordinary rural areas mainly grow grain, and squeeze out some corners to plant some cotton or a few mulberry trees.

The military households' villages grow both cotton and mulberry trees, while the minority villages mostly grow mulberry trees.

When the military village and the ethnic minority village do not have enough food of their own, they use money to buy food from ordinary villages. It is a win-win situation for all parties.

However, for the old farmers who have been farming for generations, using such good land to grow cotton and mulberry trees is a waste of resources.

If it had happened a few years ago before the clan power was broken up, a fight might have broken out.

Now, while calling the other party a fool, they happily sell food to him.

As more people buy grain, the price of grain will naturally go up, and of course we will be happy if we can make more money.

The imperial court also intentionally guided the southerners to use their fertile land to grow cotton and silk, and the relevant technology was provided by the imperial court.

The purpose is naturally to better develop the commercial economy.

So the question is, will converting so much fertile land from rice to mulberry and cotton affect the country's food security?

It definitely would have happened in the past, but now it has no effect at all.

The North has now gradually recovered some of its vitality and has become self-sufficient and no longer needs subsidies from the court.

This greatly alleviated the food pressure on the court.

Then came the development of Southeast Asia.

Jiaozhi has gradually stabilized and started to supply food to the Ming Dynasty in a steady stream.

Other countries in Indochina and the South Pacific islands also learned to exchange grain for various daily necessities from the Ming Dynasty.

To this end, the court also made a regulation:
When Ming merchant ships returned from sea, one-third of their space had to be filled with grain, with a maximum of three thousand stones.

In fact, this cap was completely unnecessary, as maritime merchants were eager to transport more food back.

The reason is simple. When they went out to sea, the cabin was full of cargo, but when they came back, the cabin was almost empty.

In today's world trade, Ming Dynasty is a unilateral exporter of goods.

Silk, cotton, tea, porcelain, sugar, glass and other products are sold all over the world.

However, the Ming Dynasty was not interested in goods from other countries - except spices.

In the past until the end of the Qing Dynasty, Western industrial countries had no way to deal with China.

Britain was enraged by this and launched the Opium War, using force to force the Qing government to engage in unequal trade.

Now is the early Ming Dynasty, and the situation is even more serious.

Shiploads of goods were shipped out, and what was brought back were precious metals such as gold, silver, and copper, as well as some local specialties.

Some smart ones have already started purchasing raw materials locally, shipping them back to Ming Dynasty to sell to workshop owners, producing them into commodities and then selling them.

Some people were forced to purchase even pig iron, bring it back, re-melt it and sell it to the court.

But before industrialization, global productivity was not very good, so where would there be so many raw materials for them to buy?
Therefore, most of the ships returned empty - no, they returned with a shipload of ballast stones.

The Ming Dynasty needs food, which is actually a good thing for them.

Anyway, there is plenty of space on the ship, so it would be nice to be able to buy food and bring it back.

However, most people purchased rice in Southeast Asia and brought it back to Ming Dynasty to sell.

Although the profit is not high, it is much better than returning with an empty ship, isn't it?

This is actually part of Chen Jingke's business plan. He is very clear that food security is the bottom line.

No matter what we do, we must first ensure food supply.

The development of industry and commerce in the country will affect food production, so we can purchase it from abroad.

In fact, the Ming Dynasty’s Ministry of Revenue is already the largest grain merchant at present.

Every year, new grain is purchased from all over the country to fill the major granaries, and then the old grain in the granaries is released into the market to balance the grain price.

The grain brought back by maritime merchants mainly flows into the private market.

Having an additional source of food will be more conducive to controlling food prices.

As for how to ensure food prices, it is very simple.

This can be done through administrative and commercial means. Administrative orders can be used to set price ranges for various staple foods, with the highest price not exceeding a certain limit. Otherwise, the person will be prosecuted for price manipulation.

The commercial means, naturally, was for the court to use massive amounts of grain to stabilize prices.

The Ming Dynasty had various granaries, including charity granaries and reserve granaries. Jiaozhi, Chu and other places were major grain-producing areas, and the imperial court could mobilize fleets to transport grain at any time.

There is as much food as you want.

Even if these methods fail in the end, there is still one last resort: the butcher's knife.

As for whether the massive influx of foreign grain will push down grain prices, causing low grain prices to hurt farmers, there is no need to worry about it.

At least for now, the Ming Dynasty’s grain reserves are not enough to need to consider this issue.

Moreover, the imperial court had prepared for a rainy day and was already guiding the people to raise poultry and livestock.

To solve the problem of meat, eggs and milk, we must accumulate little by little.

As for the effect, I can only say that it is better than when it is not recommended.

The main reason is that the people are afraid of poverty and hunger and are reluctant to use grain to feed livestock.

This would only be done if the Ming Dynasty could go on for several years or even decades without suffering from famine and the people got used to a life without food shortages.

All I can say is that there is still a long way to go.

There is no need to tell these deep-level plans to a few old farmers, as they may not understand even if you tell them.

In response to their complaints, Old Zhu and Empress Ma just echoed a few words and did not express much opinion.

However, they only complained a few words and were not particularly angry. The most important thing was to have enough food from their own land.

You can plant whatever you want on other people’s land.

Then they started talking about other things, from various people-friendly policies, to the current situation among the people, to gossip about other people's affairs, talking about whatever they thought of.

This was exactly the information Old Zhu wanted, so he listened very carefully and interrupted from time to time to ask a few questions.

Everyone expressed that they were very satisfied with their current life and were grateful to the emperor.

This made Zhu Yuanzhang very happy. The current situation of the Ming Dynasty had exceeded his imagination.

It is no exaggeration to say that it is many times better than the so-called prosperous times he had imagined.

And this is just the beginning of Chen Jingke's plan.

Every time this happened, he would feel sincerely grateful.

Fortunately, I met Chen Jingke and chose to give him a chance.

Otherwise, there wouldn’t be the grand occasion we have today.

Of course, it is far from perfect and still has many shortcomings.

The issue that everyone mentioned most was the lack of medical care and medicine.

In the surrounding villages, there was not a single proper doctor, only two shamans.

The nearest doctor is in a town more than ten miles away.

The medical skills are not that good, and can only treat common illnesses such as colds and diarrhea, and the price is very expensive.

Slightly more serious illnesses can only be sent to the county town dozens of miles away.

However, how many ordinary people are willing to go to the county town?

If you can't get treatment in town, you basically have to go home and wait to die.

Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma were also helpless about this. If it was just a problem with medicinal materials, they could still think of a solution.

The doctor really couldn't solve it.

However, they also thought of the medical system construction mentioned by Chen Jingke.

At this point, I have a deeper understanding of the significance of this plan.

Jing Ke is indeed Jing Ke, always thinking ahead of others.

I just don’t know whether the medical school has been built. I should go back and supervise it carefully and provide more support.

Just as he was thinking about it, a man on horseback came galloping towards him from a distance, but was stopped by Tang He halfway.

Zhu Yuanzhang stood up and said with a smile: "Maybe my family came to see me. You guys can chat first, I'll go and take a look."

Then he went to Tang He with Empress Ma.

In fact, there was nothing serious. The person who came just told him that both reforms had been passed and were progressing smoothly.

Old Zhu was not surprised. If the bureaucratic system still did not agree, he would return to Beijing.

As for whether it is worthwhile to trade the special zone plan with the cabinet's expanded powers...

Even if there is no special zone plan, the cabinet's expansion of power must go ahead, and the so-called transaction is just a by-product.

After understanding the situation, Zhu Yuanzhang returned and continued chatting with the old men.

The bald old man was quite curious, so he said, "The messenger looks anxious, is it anything serious?"

Old Zhu shook his head and said, "It's nothing serious. He just told us that we have collected all the cloth and can return."

I don't know what he was thinking, but he suddenly said, "Oh, by the way, he also brought us some news about the court."

Several old men immediately became interested and asked gossipingly, "Tell me what's the news?"

Old Zhu said: "The current emperor wants to expand the power of the cabinet."

Several old men looked confused. What is the cabinet? Why should it expand its power?

Lao Zhu explained the matter in detail and asked, "What do you think, brothers?"

The gray-haired old man asked, "You mean, from now on, what our emperor says will only count if the cabinet agrees with it, right?"

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said, "That's understandable, but..."

The bald old man interrupted him and asked, "Does that mean that the emperor's words will no longer count? The world will listen to those ministers?"

Zhu Yuanzhang quickly explained: "That's not the case. Everything still needs the approval of His Majesty."

"However, from now on, any decision made by the emperor must be approved by the cabinet scholars before it can be implemented."

What he didn't expect was that after hearing this, the old men looked as if they had lost their parents and showed expressions of extreme pain.

"Oh, Your Majesty is confused."

"If he doesn't keep his word, how can those treacherous officials still listen to him?"

"I don't know how those treacherous officials will harm the people in the future."

"We've only had a few days of good life, wuwuwuwu..."

"Your Majesty is still too young and was deceived by them."

"If the emperor was still in power, how could such a thing happen?"

"I don't know where the emperor is now. Let's go back and set things right."

The reactions of several people shocked Lao Zhu and Ma Niangniang, and then they were deeply moved.

Who says that the people are ignorant and do not know etiquette and morality?

They know very well who is good to them.

Of course, they also knew that the reason why the people supported the Zhu family so much was inseparable from the propaganda policy advocated by Chen Jingke.

Through the army and the reserve forces, the court's policies and righteousness are publicized to the people of the world.

Several years of hard work finally paid off today.

Suddenly, the old man with a white beard raised his hand and pounded his chest: "Your Majesty is confused... No, Your Majesty is a prodigal son."

(End of this chapter)