Guide to traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty

A group of officials passed Dayuling Mountain and went down by boat to Nanxiong.

The leader was Zhang Zongyuan, who was previously a councilor of Jiangxi Province. Now he went to Jambi to take over the post of governor. The Coconut City, which was recently captured by the court, was also under his jurisdiction.

From the Strait of Malacca to West Java, all belonged to the jurisdiction of the Jambi Governor's Office.

The South China Sea Navy will also be split this time, and the Jambi Governor's Office will be separated to add a Malacca Navy. In fact, the number of navies has not changed much, only two warships have been added.

The total number of ships in the Ming Dynasty Navy is not large. If those small offshore ships are not counted, the medium and large warships add up to only 73.

For example, the branch of the East China Sea Navy in Taiwan has only one medium-sized warship, and the rest are all small offshore ships.

Passing Yingzhou (Yingde) by boat via Shaozhou (Shaoguan), Zhang Zongyuan was very surprised: "The last time I came here, I was still a teenager. At that time, the villages in Yingzhou were in decline, but now there is continuous smoke along the coast."

The official who was transferred to the Governor's Office of Zhanbei as the third in command was called Zong Wu, who was a Jinshi in the second session of the Ming Dynasty and had previously served as a prefect in Hubei.

Zong Wu smiled and said: "My hometown is in Sihui. I have been back twice in recent years. Every time I pass through Yingzhou, there are more villages along the coast. Not only the counties along the river, but also the population in the mountainous areas of Guangdong is increasing."

"This is a prosperous era!" Zhang Zongyuan was quite happy.

In history, Yue Fei was so angry that Zhao Gou gave up his post. It was Zhang Zongyuan who was sent to temporarily manage Yue's army and investigate Yue Fei's various illegal behaviors.

Zhang Zongyuan heard many rumors and had a deep prejudice against Yue Fei. But when he actually arrived at the army, he found that Yue's army was in a panic. He personally conducted an investigation and immediately helped Yue Fei to speak well, which slightly eased the conflict between Yue Fei and Zhao Gou.

Resting at Yingzhou Post Station, Zhang Zongyuan said to Zong Wu: "In the early Song Dynasty, Yingzhou was gradually declining. At that time, I got off the boat halfway and visited a village by the river. I found that many houses were abandoned."

Zong Wu said: "The government levied heavy taxes and the farmers had a hard time, so they simply fled to Guangzhou with their families to make a living. How can the countryside not decline?"

According to official statistics, Guangdong had less than 450,000 households and less than 700,000 people in the late Northern Song Dynasty.

More than 30% of the household registration in the province was concentrated in Guangzhou Prefecture!

In comparison, the official household registration data of Fujian is more than three times that of Guangdong, which shows how serious the contradiction between people and land in Fujian was in the Song Dynasty.

No one can tell how many living people there are in Guangdong or Fujian.

After the Ming Dynasty government implemented the land tax system, the common people found that they no longer had to pay the head tax, and various taxes and levies were also cancelled. Moreover, as long as they had a household registration, they could obtain land deeds for the mountain land they reclaimed, so they took the initiative to register their household registration at the government.

In just a few years, the official population reached 3.08 million, and the population of Guangzhou Prefecture accounted for about 20% of the province.

Moreover, this data does not include minors under the age of 15, nor does it include ethnic minorities in the mountains - such as some Yao people in Guangdong, who are still in the era of slash-and-burn farming.

More than ten years have passed, and although Guangdong people have been recruited overseas, the population of Guangdong Province has still increased to more than 3.8 million.

Some ethnic minorities in the mountains have also been lured to the foot of the mountains. After they are officially registered, the agricultural officials teach them more advanced farming techniques.

There are still a large number of undeveloped mountainous areas in the province. The promotion of sweet potatoes and corn has greatly accelerated the development of Guangdong's mountainous areas.

Especially in the Dongjiang River Basin and the Hanjiang River Basin, there was less than one household per square kilometer in the Tang Dynasty, and it was not until the Northern Song Dynasty that they slowly developed. Nowadays, due to the popularity of sweet potatoes and corn, and the government's policy of encouraging land reclamation, the annual population growth rate is extremely high, and even some landless farmers in Guangzhou Prefecture have moved there.

Zhang Zongyuan was strolling from the dock to the city. When he saw an old man who looked like a farmer walking to the suburbs, he immediately went up to chat: "You are still leaving the city so late, do you live in the suburbs?"

The farmer didn't understand the official language very well, and seeing that Zhang Zongyuan was extraordinary and followed by several followers, he immediately stood there uncomfortably.

Zong Wu was from Guangdong, so he had to act as an interpreter.

The farmer replied: "My lord, my home is dozens of miles away. I will travel in the dark at night and will be able to go home tomorrow morning."

"Is your home far from the river?" Zhang Zongyuan asked.

The farmer said, "It's not far, we can take a boat back, and we can save the boat fare by walking."

Zhang Zongyuan asked again, "Are you going to the city to sell things?"

The farmer said, "We have a town over there, but we can't sell them at a good price. We can make more money in the city. I come to the city to sell some dried sweet potatoes, herbs picked from the mountains, and a few wild rabbit skins."

"How many people are there in your family?"

"Seven including the children."

"How many acres of land?"

"More than 80 acres, all of which are mountain lands that I have reclaimed myself. More than 30 acres have not been reclaimed yet, and I can't harvest much grain. It will be better in a few years when they are reclaimed."

"There are only seven people in the family, including the children, and I can grow so much. It's very hard to work the land."

"It's nothing to be tired. As long as you reclaim the land, the government will issue a land deed. When my son grows up a few years, it will be much easier."

"How old are you this year...how old are you?"

"Thirty-one."

"It looks like it's really hard. You look like fifty years old."

"I can't compare with you guys."

"Is there a village school and a teacher in the village?" "Our village was moved to reclaim wasteland in the past ten years. There are not many villagers. Where can we get teachers?"

"There will be one in a few years."

"Hehe."

After a chat, the farmer left with an empty basket.

It was not completely empty. There were two feet of flowered cloth and one foot of blue cloth in the basket, and he also bought some salt to take back.

This old young farmer walked briskly and even hummed an unknown folk song. He was not depressed by the hard life at all, but was happy because he sold agricultural and sideline products.

Zhang Zongyuan looked at the farmer's back for a long time without saying a word, and I don't know what he was thinking.

When he came to Guangzhou, it was another scene.

Most of the counties and prefectures in Guangdong were very poor, but Guangzhou Prefecture was extremely prosperous.

When Zhang Zongyuan visited the officials of the three divisions of Guangdong, he learned that the first batch of Fujian immigrants had arrived. A total of 3,000 people were waiting to take a boat to enrich the newly occupied West Java.

There were two more batches to follow, and a total of 8,000 Fujian immigrants would be sent there.

The population of Fujian was so large in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty continued to organize migration after the founding of the country. But as long as life was good, the fertility rate remained high, and the population of Fujian did not decrease much due to migration.

In fact, Huainan and Zhejiang were similar. With the end of the war, the population increased. The court organized migration every five years, but it was not enforced. Instead, the people were asked to sign up and migrate to Youyan, Liaodong, and the overseas territories of the Ming Dynasty in Japan.

The Central Plains migrated to the northwest, and Sichuan migrated to western and southern Sichuan.

…

"So many immigrants!"

Wang Chongdu looked across the river at the Fujian immigrants temporarily settled on the island, and wished he could take them all to Australia to pan for gold.

The semi-official personnel privately supported by the royal family were ultimately inferior to the real government.

Before the news of whether Sunda was destroyed came, the first batch of immigrants who moved there had been transported to Guangzhou. In comparison, Wang Chongdu was just making a small fuss.

Li Bin muttered, "The officials in Huizhou refused to let me take away too many gold diggers, and even arranged for officials to set up checkpoints on the river to intercept them."

"It's good enough to take people away. You made too much trouble in Huizhou this time." Gao Wenbao laughed.

Huizhou, where Heyuan County is located, has a larger population than northern Guangdong due to its early development, but it is certainly not comparable to Fujian, where the contradiction between people and land is fierce.

Li Bin led people to escort Zhang Guan, who picked up the gold nugget, home, and beat gongs and drums at the post stations along the way to publicize it. Before the people returned to Heyuan County, the news had already spread.

Li Bin was afraid that the sensation was not enough, so he directly advertised that Zhang Guan's gold nugget was sold for 5,000 strings of cash!

As a result, people from all counties in Huizhou Prefecture kept coming to inquire about the situation, all wanting to go to Australia to make money.

In an era when the court encouraged immigration, the increase in population within the jurisdiction could not highlight political achievements. Anyway, the land tax has been distributed, so how many more taxes can be collected no matter how many people there are? Now what is more important is the increase in cultivated land area and the increase in industrial and commercial tax revenue.

Only in those counties where there are too many foreigners and need to accept Han immigrants, the proportion of population growth in political performance assessment is very high.

Analyze specific issues specifically. In counties that are already densely populated and need to return farmland to lakes, even the increase in cultivated land area is not included in the political achievements.

The assessment standards for local officials in the Ming Dynasty are very flexible.

But this time it was too sensational.

An honest and poor farmer went to Australia and got "five thousand strings of cash". Others would naturally think, I can get rich if I go there!

The prefect of Huizhou was alarmed and dispatched officials to set up checkpoints to intercept.

After much persuasion, Li Bin finally took 300 people away from Huizhou, and the rest were all sent back to their respective villages by officials.

At this time, a doctor was speaking to 3,000 Fujian immigrants on the island.

"When you go to West Java, remember to drink more hot water. Especially when it rains all the time, drink more hot water, preferably sugar water and salt water, or you can make porridge with it. Don't be too tired when farming, don't work as hard as you did in Fujian. Again, drink more hot water when you sweat. Salt is cheap there, and you can grow sugarcane yourself, and add salt and sugar to water to drink."

"Don't take my words lightly, this is a lesson that those immigrants learned at the cost of their lives. Some people were given a lot of land, and there were native tenants helping them farm, but I have to work hard in the fields. Some people died inexplicably while working! "

"With the Ming soldiers opening up the frontier, how much land is waiting for immigrants to share? Once you adapt to the climate and farm normally, you will enjoy a good life. Your future will definitely be better and better. Don't rush, and don't be careless!"

"Fuck him, if too many of you die, I, a doctor, will have to eat!"

The next day, the fleet carrying the first batch of immigrants left the port with other merchant ships and sailed towards Nanyang.

Wang Chongdu's fleet was also among them.

He stood on the deck, looking at the spectacular scene on the sea, and a heroic feeling of high spirits arose spontaneously.

Wang Chongdu had read history books, and he vaguely realized what era he was in, and he also actively participated in major historical events.

He wanted to draw his sword and sing loudly, but he only had a waist knife on him.