Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 615
Li Jing shook his head and said, "Xiao Jiu, you don't like to read history books, so you don't understand many things. Do you know why every dynasty expands its territory when it is founded, and after decades they stop conquering the Quartet, and even Is the force starting to decline?"

Xiao Jiu said with a smile: "How can my child understand that." "

Li Jing sighed and said: "This is because when the country is stable, those civil servants and military generals will not want to go to war after living a comfortable life. When the next generation and even the next generation are waiting, they will naturally be even less willing to fight for their lives on the battlefield. Officials at the top The generals are unwilling to fight, so why talk about opening up territories?
I want to take advantage of the strong military strength of Daming to lay down a territory for future generations, so that even if they don't want to fight in the future, Daming will still have enough territory for them to survive, as long as they can stabilize the country I gave them. "

Xiao Jiu wondered: "Is the current territory of Daming not enough for future generations to survive? I heard from Grandpa Shen and Uncle Zhang that many places in Daming are now desolate, and the current population is far from being able to live in so many places."

Li Jing smiled and said, "So they don't take my population policy seriously."

Shaking his head, Li Jing sighed softly: "They don't understand that as the country stabilizes, the population will grow explosively. Now the total population of Ming Dynasty is about 100 million. If the population is not controlled, in [-] years, the population of Daming will be [-] million. It will be doubled several times. After that, there will be more and more, what will future generations do at that time?"

Sighing slightly, Li Jing continued: "We often talk about natural disasters and man-made disasters, but in fact, many times, natural disasters are caused by man-made disasters.

Let’s just talk about the flooding of the Yellow River. Everyone knows that the main reason for the flooding of the Yellow River is the sedimentation of the river channel washed down by the upper reaches, which makes the river bed in the lower reaches higher and higher, and many places are even higher than the ground on both banks. When the flood broke through the dam, the houses and farms on both sides of the bank were completely destroyed.

But no one thinks about the deep-seated reason. In fact, the real reason is that people destroyed the trees and vegetation in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River in order to cultivate crops, and the soil lost its protection. "

"No way? The Yellow River has been flooding for thousands of years, and it has been like that for a long time." Xiao Jiu asked doubtfully.

Li Jing smiled: "That's why I said that you don't read history books, and you don't know the fundamentals. Come, sit down, and I will tell you a story today."

After finishing speaking, Li Jing turned around and sat down at the desk. Xiao Jiu followed up and poured a cup of tea for Li Jing before sitting down.

Li Jing took a sip of tea, then said with a smile: "We Han people are all descendants of Yan and Huang, and the land we live in is also called the land of Huaxia. So we Han people are also called Huaxia people.

But at the beginning, our Han population was not large, and we mainly lived on both sides of the Yellow River in Shaanxi, Henan and Shanxi.People at this time lived mainly by hunting, and most of the wild animals lived in the forest. People knew that the forest should not be destroyed, because without the forest, they would have nothing to eat.

But after many years, people discovered that many crops are edible, and these crops are what we often call whole grains.Slowly people learned to grow these crops, that is, to grow crops.After learning how to grow crops, people's food sources will be sufficient.

Due to the abundance of food, the population began to grow rapidly. As a result of the growth, the land available for cultivation was not enough. At this time, people no longer had to rely on hunting, so they felt that the forest was useless, so humans began to cut down trees, turning the original forest land developed for farming.

Fortunately, people's tools were simple at this time, and the damage was not too big. However, with more and more humans, the damage to the forest is also increasing.Have you heard the story of Dayu's flood control? "

Xiao Jiu hurriedly said: "When I was young, my godmother told us this story. Dayu controlled the floods, and he never entered the house three times."

Li Jing nodded with a smile, and then said seriously: "During Dayu's flood control, the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River had already been silted up, which means that many forests along the middle reaches of the Yellow River have been cut down, and the land has lost vegetation protection.

Otherwise, why was the Yellow River not silted up before?Could it be that there has been no heavy rain for hundreds of years?Obviously, this is impossible.

Since it has been raining heavily, why haven't I heard of the Yellow River flooding before?The reason is simple. In the past, there was vegetation protection along the Yellow River. Even if there was a flood, the soil would not be washed into the river by the flood, so the river was smooth. "

Sighing slightly, Li Jing continued: "Actually, the forest vegetation along the Yellow River is not too severely damaged at this time. If the deforestation stops at this time, the Yellow River still has room to save.

Unfortunately, after Dayu controlled the floods, people's lives became stable and the population began to grow again. When the growth reached a certain level, the existing cultivated land was not enough, so they began to cut down forests. After thousands of years of logging in the Zhou Dynasty, the Yellow River The forests on both sides of the middle and lower reaches were gone, and the flooding of the Yellow River has been out of control since then. "

"Marshal, you mean those forest trees that protect the Yellow River?" Xiao Jiu asked suspiciously.

Li Jing sighed: "Yes, it's a pity that people don't understand this truth. They always think that the flooding of the Yellow River is a natural disaster. In fact, if it wasn't for human beings, how could God send disasters? The reason why people cut down trees is because of overpopulation. There is not enough arable land."

Xiao Jiu scratched her head: "Marshal, I don't understand what you said, but I think what you said must be right."

Li Jing smiled wryly and said: "Not only you don't understand, but also the court ministers don't understand, so they don't want to carry out the population policy I promulgated, and they are not willing to implement it if they are asked to plant trees along the Yellow River.

It is conceivable that after dozens or hundreds of years, when the population of Daming reaches a certain level, the existing cultivated land will definitely not be enough. What should we do at this time?So now I want to create an extra piece of land for future generations, so that they will not destroy Daming's land again. "

"You still care about things that will happen after dozens or hundreds of years!" Xiao Jiu shouted.

Li Jing smiled and said: "The position I'm sitting in is to take care of things that will happen decades later. If I only care about the present, why should I worry so much? Isn't it enough to follow the previous system? I just need to manage the officials well. Let them be corrupt and favoritism, and the common people will say that I am a good official."

After finishing speaking, Li Jing sighed: "Those who know me say that I am worried, and those who don't know me say what I want."

"What do you mean?" Xiao Jiu asked.

Li Jing got up and raised his hand to tap Xiao Jiu on the head: "You ignorant brat! Let's go, go home, and borrow money from your godmother."

"Borrowing money from the godmother? What are you borrowing money for?" Xiao Jiu asked suspiciously.

Li Jing glared at Xiao Jiu: "What are you talking about borrowing money for? To buy food for disaster relief."

"Didn't the Ministry of Households allocate funds?" Xiao Jiu asked.

Li Jing looked at Xiaojiu and sighed, "Do you know how many people there are in Henan and Shandong? Let me tell you, there are nearly ten million people in these two provinces.

According to your grandfather Shen and Uncle Zhang's reports, this locust plague is basically inevitable. By then, the two provinces will be thousands of miles away, and these tens of millions of people will not even have the bark to eat.Relief of so many people requires at least 700 shi of grain a day. How long can the [-] million taels of silver raised by the household department last?Can't even make it through winter!

But for this disaster relief, the common people must persist until the beginning of next spring at least, and seeds must be prepared for them. Let me tell you, it is conservatively estimated that this disaster relief will cost 1000 million taels of silver. "

"But I can't let my godmother fill in such a big hole! No matter how rich my godmother is, I can't stand your troubles. How much did you spend during this time?" Xiao Jiu said dissatisfied.

Li Jing glared at Xiao Jiu: "Why do I need so much money! I don't bring it with me when I die, not to mention that this money was originally taken from the people, and now it is used for the people. It's what you deserve. You At such a young age, you care so much about money, if you let it out, you can't take bribes?"

"Father! I'm fighting for my godmother. My godmother earned all the money in the family. If you don't earn money, you know how to spend it!" Xiao Jiu said anxiously.

Li Jing laughed loudly when he heard the words: "You little bastard, I know how much I love your godmother. That's enough, stop talking!"

Xiao Jiu curled her lips and muttered in a low voice: "The prodigal son."

Li Jing raised his hand and slapped Xiao Jiu on the head: "Stinky boy, what are you mumbling about!"

……

Hearing that Li Jing returned to the mansion, Shen Ying and Zhu Huihou looked at each other, Shen Ying smiled and said: "Master must have encountered another problem when he came back so early, I guess, maybe he came to ask for money again."

"In the past six months, the master has taken out several million taels of silver from the house. If this continues, our sisters and I will have done nothing for more than ten years." Zhu Huiyu laughed.

Shen Ying shook her head and said with a smile: "Let him make troubles, and he will stop after he has lost all his wealth."

At this moment, Li Jing pushed the door open and said, "Who doesn't stop? Let me hear."

Shen Ying and Zhu Huiling couldn't help but smile when they heard this.

Shen Ying got up and took off her outer shirt for Li Jing and said with a smile: "Except for the master, who else in our family is not restless?"

Li Jing took the teacup from Zhu Huiyu's hand and said with a smile, "Why don't I stop?"

Shen Ying smiled and said: "Master came home so early, something must have happened. I just told my sister that the master may have come back to ask for money again."

"It's really smart. It's a good way to know your husband, Mo Ruo's wife, or a good wife." Li Jing said with a smile.

Shen Ying smiled and shook her head: "But what happened again?"

Li Jing put away his smile, sighed softly and said, "Just now my father-in-law and Zhang Ao came to report that there are signs of locust plagues in Henan and Shandong again."

"Plague of locusts?" Shen Ying and Han Huihui were surprised at the same time.

Li Jingjing nodded: "According to the estimates of the people below, this year's locust plague may be more serious than last year, and it is likely to spread to the north and south."

"So serious? So how does the master plan to deal with this disaster?" Zhu Huiyu asked in shock.

Li Jing smiled wryly: "What else can I do, just adjust the food for disaster relief! But the court has no money, so I can only ask my father-in-law to use the military salary, but there is still a gap of more than 300 million, so I went home to discuss with the two wives. Can you lend me 300 million taels of silver?"

"Master, what nonsense are you talking about? Isn't my sister and I's money belong to the master? Why borrow money?" Shen Ying laughed.

(End of this chapter)