Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 544: Small Ice River with Great Power
"Your Majesty, the Ministry of Revenue has compiled statistics on this year's autumn harvest."
After presiding over Zhu Youxiao's wedding at Tianjin Port and negotiating with Zhu Youxiao to let him return to serve as regent, Zhu Youdong hurried back to Beijing.
Of course, although the transportation conditions in the Ming Dynasty of this dimension are far better than those in this dimension, they cannot be compared with those in modern times. Therefore, it can be predicted that it will take a considerable amount of time for the emperor to tour the country. Before that, there are naturally many preparations to be done. Therefore, if the emperor really wants to tour, it will be next year at the latest. Before that, the State Council meetings should be held as usual.
At the State Council meeting in early October, just at the beginning, the Minister of Revenue Wang Shaozheng reported bad news to Zhu Youdong.
"Your Majesty, since the first year of the Tianqi reign, our Ming Dynasty has expanded its territory greatly, established four new provinces, and actually controlled the north and south of the desert. Therefore, in the seventh year of the Tianqi reign, the country actually had 960 million mu of arable land. But this year, according to the calculations of the Ministry of Households, the country's affected arable land has reached 210 million mu, and there are nearly 10 million mu of abandoned land."
"ah?"
Before Zhu Youdong could speak, the important officials attending the meeting could no longer sit still when they heard Wang Shaozheng say this.
"Da Si Tu, what's going on?"
"Yes, agriculture is the foundation of the country. We must not mess it up. Why are there so many affected lands?"
"It's okay for the land to be affected by the disaster. Just because God is not kind to us this year doesn't mean that he will be unkind every year. But why are so many lands left uncultivated?"
Faced with the ministers talking at once, Zhu Youdong habitually tapped the table with his fingers.
The cultivated land area of the Ming Dynasty is a roller coaster. If you study the cultivated land of the Ming Dynasty according to the "Ming Shilu", you will probably collapse: in the 24th year of Hongwu (1391), the cultivated land area was only 390 million mu, and two years later it became 850 million mu, and seven years later it became 420 million mu. In the 21st year of Chenghua (1485), it was 490 million mu, and two years later it became 830 million mu. In the 17th year of Hongzhi, it was 840 million mu, and one year later it became 470 million mu. The official cultivated land data of the Ming Dynasty is so capricious: within one or two years, it can rise by hundreds of millions of mu, and it can suddenly drop by hundreds of millions of mu.
In fact, a careful analysis of these data reveals a pattern: the 24th year of Hongwu was the year before the Yellow Book Library was built. Therefore, two years later, when the Yellow Book Library was officially built, the land area skyrocketed. Seven years after that, Emperor Jianwen was in power. This guy, who could lose even with a trump card and four twos, was obviously fooled by the civil officials below. After Chenghua, Hongzhi had just ascended the throne. After refreshing the perk, the land area naturally increased. After Hongzhi was Emperor Zhengde. When the young emperor first came to power, he was bullied by the civil officials. The cultivated land in the Ming Dynasty account book suddenly decreased by 370 million mu...
In short, when the emperor was strong, the Ming Dynasty had more arable land, and vice versa. The Ming Dynasty's civil officials were not rotten after the formation of the Donglin Party, but had been rotten since the Jianwen period.
This roller coaster-like change in cultivated land area finally changed completely during the reign of Zhang Juzheng: Zhang had troops at his disposal, so he was very iron-fisted in clearing the cultivated land area across the country. In addition, Zhang's ability to govern the country was the best in the world, so his clearing method was also very scientific:
First of all, not only the land of the common people, but also the land of the royal family and princes were remeasured. "The land will be measured and distributed equally among the people. But if there are any violations or obstructions, regardless of whether they are royal family members, officials, soldiers or civilians, they will be severely punished according to the law." Zhang Juzheng put strong political pressure on local officials to implement the "Performance Evaluation Law", which ultimately ensured the smooth implementation of the land survey and measurement, and that year 155 million mu of concealed land was cleared out.
The second is to unify the mu system. Originally, there was a phenomenon of "big mu and small mu" in the north. Zhang Juzheng unified the mu system across the country through "land surveying", with 240 steps equal to one mu. The "unified mu system" reduced the trouble of tax collection and eliminated the loophole of grassroots officials taking advantage of "big mu and small mu" to make profits.
The third is to simplify the rules for tax collection. After the land was surveyed, it was divided into three categories: superior water-rich land, medium-poor land, and inferior waterless high land. When paying taxes, whether it was government land or private land, the rules were the same: 1 mu of superior land was actually 1 mu, 1.5 mu of medium land was 1 mu, and 2 mu of inferior land was 1 mu.
After such an iron-fisted and scientific land survey, the national land survey was completed in the ninth year of the Wanli reign. The two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty actually had 758 million mu of arable land.
After Zhang Juzheng's death, the amount of cultivated land in the Ming Dynasty gradually decreased. It was not until Zhu Youdong became the regent that he rebuilt the Yellow Book with an iron fist and redrawn a new fish scale atlas based on the Yellow Book. So in the first year of Tianqi, when Zhu Youdong ascended the throne, the amount of cultivated land in the Ming Dynasty was 830 million mu.
From the first year to the seventh year of the Tianqi reign, on the one hand, a large number of princes and dukes were transferred overseas and returned a large amount of arable land to the country. On the other hand, the country expanded its territory. Therefore, by this time, the arable land area of the Ming Dynasty reached 960 million mu: and this number of mu was calculated based on Zhang Juzheng's conversion method. If we really talk about the pure amount of land, it is estimated to be around 1.1 billion mu.
But now the Ministry of Households reports that more than one-fifth of the land has been affected by disasters, and about one percent of the land has been abandoned?
"Grand Situ, in which provinces are the disaster-stricken lands mainly concentrated?"
"Your Majesty, the disaster mainly affected Liaoning, Northern Zhili, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Gansu. Almost all of these five places were affected. In addition, some fields in Henan and Shandong were also affected. In addition, the grasslands in Mongolia were also affected on a large scale."
"What disaster? Drought?"
"Your Majesty is wise and wise. Drought is the main problem. Take Liaoning as an example. In January and February this year, there were only two small snowfalls in Liaoning. In June and July this year, there was not even a single rainstorm. The water volume of rivers in various places has decreased, and smaller streams have dried up. Due to water shortage, all cultivated land in Liaoning Province has reduced production or even no harvest.
In addition, due to insufficient rainfall, insect plagues are also getting worse. This spring and summer, Shandong and Henan both had large-scale locust plagues. In addition to locust plagues, wheat rust and aphids have also appeared frequently. "
"Hmm..." After tapping the table for a while, Zhu Youdong looked up and asked, "What about Mongolia? The drought has caused the grassland to shrink, and there is not enough grass?"
"Not only that, Your Majesty. Since the end of last year, the Imperial Astronomical Observatory has clearly told the Ministry of Revenue that this year will be a disaster year. In addition to drought and insect plagues, the temperature is also lower than the same period in previous years. So unlike the soldiers and civilians in Liaoning Province who are eager for a heavy snow, the Mongolian grasslands are plagued by snow in winter, and a large number of livestock are frozen to death. In the summer, there are sandstorms, which erode the already underdeveloped grassland area... After several natural disasters, the Mongolian tribes have had an extremely difficult life this year."
Nodding, Zhu Youdong turned to Tian Ergeng and Wei Zhongxian and said, "Zhang Shize is in charge of guiding public opinion, and you two are in charge of finding out public opinion. Tell me, with so many disasters this year, are there any doubts in the government or the public?"
Tian and Wei looked at each other and both smiled bitterly.
"Your Majesty, I, the East Factory, have heard a lot of bad things in the past year. The worst of all is that your Majesty is trying to change the laws of our ancestors, which has displeased the heavens, who are sending down disasters to punish the Ming Dynasty."
"Your Majesty, my Imperial Guards have also heard similar things. In addition to criticizing Your Majesty, there are also people saying that the Empress and Concubine You are not virtuous women, and as women, they are showing their faces everywhere. They also say that the Emperor Taishang wasted the people's money and toured the country, so that the heavens were disgusted and sent down disasters. These, your ministers and the factory master have written memorials and sent them to the Imperial Household Department."
"Well, I have heard Cao Huachun talk about these things over the past year. But as an emperor, how can I arrest, imprison, or kill my subjects just because they say something stupid? Forget it. This matter still needs to be implemented in terms of guiding public opinion."
As a time traveler, Zhu Youdong certainly knew that the Ming Dynasty had entered a small ice age at this time, and in the next few decades, this extreme climate would not improve but would only get worse.
The so-called Little Ice Age, in simple terms, is a sudden drop in temperature and a southward shift in the rainfall belt. This caused a general reduction in grain production, drought in the north, and flooding in the south. For an agricultural country like the Chinese Empire, encountering such an extreme climate was simply a death wish.
According to the research of later meteorologists represented by Zhu Kezhen, the Chinese nation has experienced four relatively extreme Little Ice Ages since it entered civilized society. They are the late Xia and early Shang dynasties, the Three Kingdoms and the Jin Dynasty, the late Tang and Five Dynasties, and the late Ming and early Qing dynasties. This shows how severe this Little Ice Age was.
"Grand Minister, I have read the data submitted by the Ministry of Revenue. In the areas in the north that were most affected by the disaster, most of them only saw a reduction in production, and only a few of them had a total crop failure, right?"
"Your Majesty." Wang Shaozheng stood up and bowed respectfully. "Speaking of this, I must express my respect for Your Majesty. Your Majesty vigorously promoted the planting of crops such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn more than 20 years ago, and worked hard to improve rice varieties. Today, the results are very obvious. For example, in the newly built Gansu Province, wheat and millet are almost completely destroyed. But potatoes are growing well, and the people there can still eat more or less. In addition, with the effective relief from the court, they can still barely survive starvation."
"Just barely surviving starvation..." Zhu Youdong shook his head helplessly: This is not a disaster that will last for one or two years, but will last for decades. If it really lasts for so many years, who knows, another Li Zicheng will emerge.
"My Lords." Zhu Youdong stood up and said, "In my opinion, every citizen of the Ming Dynasty is my subject and needs my care. Therefore, tax exemption and strong relief are the right things to do in the disaster-stricken areas."
"Your Majesty, I have already requested an imperial decree to exempt the land tax in the above-mentioned disaster-stricken areas this year, and I have also mobilized 3 million dan of grain stored in the Taicang warehouse for relief."
"Not enough." Zhu Youdong waved his hand. "The Ministry of Revenue needs to do a more detailed job. In those areas that were severely affected by the disaster, except for the land tax, all taxes such as the head tax and corvée tax should be exempted. People can't even dig out anything from their fields, so how can they get money to pay taxes? To be honest, it was only in the past few years that the years were better, and the people had some surplus at home. Otherwise, with the intensity of this year's disaster relief, there might be a civil uprising."
"Your Majesty, I know I was wrong."
"Hey, Grand Tutor, you don't have to do this. I was lazy. There have been too many things in recent years, so I just let it go unless there was a civil uprising. I am wrong. My Lords, I have said long ago that without agriculture there is no stability, without industry there is no strength, and without commerce there is no wealth. Agriculture is related to the foundation of the country and must be taken seriously. I have a feeling that such disastrous weather will continue . We must formulate a plan today to deal with it in order to maintain the stability of the country's foundation."
