Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 72: Northwest Crisis Emerges (Part 3)
"Hmm..." After flicking his fingers on the armrest of the chair several times, Zhu Youdong raised his head and said, "Kuanren, besides farming and tea, don't farmers in Shaanxi have other ways to make money?"
"Your Highness, in addition to these two items, the people of Shaanxi can also raise horses. However, the current horse policy of our Ming Dynasty, uh, please forgive me for being frank, this horse policy in Shaanxi is actually in name only."
At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, in order to continue the war with the Northern Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang designated some people in some areas in the north as horse households, responsible for raising horses for the court. And let these horse households pay war horses instead of taxes. Of course, this idealism did not last long: people are divided into hardworking, lazy, smart, and stupid, and the horses raised by different horse households are very different. This is unacceptable to the army. In addition, the strong and repeated attacks of the Ming Dynasty on Mongolia during the Yongle period greatly weakened the power of Mongolia. Therefore, the horse policy of letting the people raise horses for the country gradually became slack during the Renxuan period.
During the Zhengtong period, after the Battle of Tumu, the importance of war horses was highlighted again. However, the Ming government obtained war horses more through trade: the tea-horse trade gradually flourished from this period.
"Your Highness, since Duke Yang Wenxiang (Yang Yiqing, a famous minister during the reign of Emperor Wuzong) rectified the horse policy ( a new policy to obtain horses through trade) during the Zhengde period and set rules for the tea-horse trade, during the Zhengde and Jiajing periods, the tea sold by Shaanxi through the official Tea and Horse Bureau alone was worth about 200,000 to 300,000 taels of silver each year, which could buy more than 10,000 high-quality war horses for the country. In addition, it could also provide the country with an additional 10,000 taels of tax silver. As for private trade among the people, it was ten times more than that... This would benefit millions of Shaanxi people. However, starting from the Longqing period, a large amount of Huguang tea entered Shaanxi, destroying not only the tea industry in Shaanxi, but also the horse policy in Shaanxi..."
At this point, it is a question of pattern. As a county magistrate in Shaanxi, Chen Shiji's position is of course on the side of Shaanxi. He is full of anger at the low-price dumping of Huguang tea, which has led to the economic decline of Shaanxi, and he tried every means to slander it. But for Zhu Youdong, he saw something different: the productivity of the Ming Dynasty at this time had already been seriously oversupplied!
The decline of Shaanxi's economy is not only due to the continuous deterioration of the climate and the degradation of the natural environment. More importantly, the Ming Dynasty has been established for more than 200 years, and the national economy has been closely linked. In the absence of maritime trade, when domestic productivity is in excess, the regions with better economic development can only dump their products to the economically backward regions. Then the rich get richer and the poor get poorer!
"Your Highness, Shaanxi was the former Guanzhong region, which achieved the glory of the Han and Tang dynasties. However, it has shown signs of fatigue since the Northern Song Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, it is even more powerless. A few years ago, the horse policy rectified by Yang Wenxiang was not only participated by the people, but also by the many military towns in Shaanxi. Due to the dumping of Huguang tea, the horse policy in Shaanxi was destroyed. Not only the people of Shaanxi are extremely poor, but even the soldiers in the military towns are also poor!"
Zhu Youdong believed this: In the past, Shaanxi tea was exported to the northwest, and the local officials and military officers in Shaanxi were definitely in control of the trade. But tea still needed to be grown by ordinary people and military households. However, now... you can make money by directly buying it from other places and reselling it once. Who is willing to go to each village and military post to slowly collect tea?
"Kuanren, can you tell me how the people in Shaanxi are doing now?"
"Your Highness, my Xianyang County is located in the Guanzhong Plain, with the Wei River flowing through it. So as long as the people of Xianyang are diligent and no one in their family is sick, they can basically have enough food and clothing. But the situation in northern Shaanxi is very bad, with a dry climate and shrinking water sources. Even if the local people rent more than 30 acres of land and pay various rents and taxes, they still cannot have enough food and clothing. In the past, they had tea to supplement their income, but now they lose as much as they grow... In short, the counties in northern Shaanxi basically cannot pay taxes every year. Although the local tax amount is very low, I have observed that my colleagues in northern Shaanxi are considered capable officials if they can complete 60% of the court's quota every year. But even if they only collect 60%, many farmers still flee every year and become refugees...
As for the military garrisons, I am a herdsman officer and I am not very clear about the affairs of the military men. However... the ordinary military households in Shaanxi are no strangers to desertion. The military households that have persisted, uh... Your Highness, please forgive me for being blunt, but they are not much different from beggars... Your Highness!"
Seeing that Zhu Youdong was not angry at all and was listening more attentively, Chen Shiji became a little bolder. He took a step forward and said to Zhu Youdong, "Your Highness, the marketing of Huguang tea in Shaanxi will destroy the foundation of Shaanxi. I hereby boldly ask Your Highness to advise the Emperor to ban Huguang tea from entering Shaanxi!"
"Hmm... Kuanren, this matter has developed to the current situation over a period of more than one or two years, right? Did the Shaanxi Provincial Governor never make suggestions to the court?"
"Haha..." After a bitter smile, Chen Shiji said, "Your Highness, Shaanxi and Huguang had a dispute over this matter in the early years of the Wanli reign. At that time, Zhang Taiyue was in power, and Zhang Taiyue was from Huguang. Uh... Anyway, in the early years of the Wanli reign, Shaanxi and Huguang argued for a long time in the court over this matter, but in the end it was left unresolved."
Taking a deep breath, Zhu Youdong looked up and stared blankly at the magnificently decorated roof of the hall for a while, his heart filled with helplessness and fatigue.
In the historical perspective, Shaanxi, the birthplace of the peasant uprising in the late Ming Dynasty, was short of land and insufficient in terms of agriculture, and suffered heavy losses from economically advanced provinces in terms of commerce. The people's livelihood was of course extremely difficult. It can be said that at this time, Shaanxi was already a dry firewood, and as long as there was a little spark...
It shouldn't be like this. The Ming Dynasty's excess productivity should not be harming each other in the country, but should be exported to the sea from the southeast!
It shouldn't be like this. Shaanxi is inland in the 21st century, but it is a border in this era. Moreover, it is also a place where nomadic farming meets. Shouldn't border trade in this era be very successful and profitable?
As for advising Emperor Wanli to ban Huguang tea in Shaanxi, Zhu Youdong would never do it: first, a trade blockade within the country is a typical thankless task. Secondly, if he did so, how would the people of Huguang feel?
"Thank you for your hard work, Kuanren. Thank you for being honest with me. I will report everything you said today to Grandpa Emperor without missing a word . Well... As for you, don't worry about Liang Yong's matter. I will settle it for you."
"Thank you, Your Highness!"
"Well, it's a rare opportunity to come to the capital, so let's take a good stroll around the capital. We can go back after Grandpa Emperor's holy judgment comes down."
"Yes, I obey your command. In this case, I will take my leave."
…
That night, Zhu Youdong went to the palace overnight, and the grandfather and grandson discussed for a long time by candlelight.
The next day, Da Nei issued an order to transfer Liang Yong back from Shaanxi. At the same time, Shaanxi would no longer send new mine supervisors.
As for Chen Shiji, since his three-year term had not yet expired, he returned to Xianyang to continue serving as the county magistrate. But there was no doubt that this person had entered Zhu Youdong's sight.
What Zhu Youdong didn't know was that after this incident, Wanli went to the Cining Palace and discussed with Empress Dowager Li for a long time...
