The thunderous bell of the palace in the middle of the night woke up not only Zhu Yunwen alone, but the quiet Chang'an Street suddenly lit up the lights, followed by a burst of people running on their backs.

The first thing Yang Shiqi did after waking up was to put on his official uniform, and then ordered someone to prepare the carriage and horse.

"Today's person on duty in Wenhua Hall is Xie Dashen, he shouldn't dare to hit the bell."

Walking out of the mansion gate, Yang Shiqi looked west, and almost every household in Beijing ran out of a street, looking in the direction of the palace.

"Your Majesty has been on the throne for more than ten years, and this is the first time that the bell has been ringed except for New Year's Eve, and something terrible must have happened."

Xia Yuanji walked over and said hello to Yang Shiqi, his eyebrows locked: "Who is going to face the saint?" ”

At this time, many officials had gathered around Yang Shiqi, including the noble generals of the Fifth Military Mansion, who also came over to inquire about the news, and everyone was curious.

"Didn't see the straightening."

It was Wang Qian who said a word, and the big guy found out that Yan Zhen, the Minister of Industry and Commerce, had not shown up until now, so the person who entered the palace to face the saint was naturally determined.

"I've seen King Yan."

At this time, Zhu Di also walked out of the house, and the group bowed their hands.

"What's wrong?"

Zhu Di frowned and looked at Yang Shiqi: "Right now, I am at home and abroad, everywhere in the Ming Dynasty is making great progress, and I am triumphant, how can I suddenly even make trouble about hitting the clock in the middle of the night." ”

Where can the bell outside the Qianqing Gate be hit casually, and if the bell is hit, it means that you must face the saint, no matter what the emperor is doing, you have to show up, and if it is not a major event related to the country's foundation, it will become an emperor.

Yang Shiqi shook his head, and then said: "I don't know, but it is estimated that His Majesty will summon him soon, and he will know when he enters the palace." ”

Sure enough, soon there was a sound of footsteps from the east, gradually approaching, and the group of people led by Yang Shiqi put up their crowns, and the chatter disappeared in an instant.

As everyone expected, for such a big event, the emperor would definitely gather his ministers.

"Your Majesty's dictation, summon a few elders into the palace."

The eunuch who delivered the decree stopped and shouted: "The rest of the ministers, rest and sleep early, and go to Fengtian Hall early tomorrow morning to hold a big court meeting." ”

It seems that something serious is indeed wrong.

The four of them all sank, looked at each other and hurried to the palace, all the way to the Qianqing Palace, and when the four of them arrived, on the main hall, Zhu Yunwen, Yan Zhenzhi, and Xie Jin were all there.

Seeing the ceremony, Zhu Di opened his mouth first.

"Your Majesty, what's wrong?"

"Let Yan Qing talk about it."

Zhu Yunwen pinched his eyebrows, and it seemed that his spirit was very sluggish.

Several people looked at Yan Zhenzhi, who sighed and said in a deep voice: "Tonight, the chief official of the Zhejiang Federation of Industry and Commerce wrote me a letter, saying that several major grain merchants in Zhejiang have united and burned all the grain stored in their respective warehouses. ”

"Burning grain?"

Xia Yuanji's reaction was the most intense: "Zhejiang has been living a good life for too long, and it can't be fooled by the brain, the dynasty has just had a few years of rich life, even if the grain storage can't be stored, it can be sold to the people at a low price, or used to make wine, how can it be burned like this." ”

"Could it be that these businessmen want to take the opportunity to raise prices and make money from the people?"

Wang Qian questioned: "If this is the case, then those who should be arrested will be arrested, and those who should be killed will be killed." ”

Yan Zhenzhi smiled bitterly and shook his head: "If that's the case, it's okay, they burned the grain, but the price of the grain was still under control, and they didn't even raise a penny, and even lowered the price to sell it." ”

The merchant only burned his own grain, not the grain stored in the official warehouse, and after burning, he did not sell the remaining grain at a higher price, no matter from any point of view, he did not violate the law.

"Don't guess, the place must know about India."

Yang Shiqi opened his mouth: "They are worried that after the arrival of India's grain, it will cause the price of grain in the market to fall rapidly, or even be worthless, so they will do this to minimize their losses." ”

Once the Indian grain arrives in Quanzhou, then this group of grain merchants will be directly finished, and they will lose money no matter what, and they will lose half of the grain at most.

At this moment, a small eunuch ran in from outside the hall, holding a notebook in his hand.

"Your Majesty, it was sent by the General Administration."

Shuangxi took it, and was about to pass it on to Zhu Yunwen, but saw the latter raise his hand: "Show it to Yang Gelao." ”

Yang Shiqi took it with both hands, hurriedly tore it open and looked at it, his face changed greatly.

"Ladies and gentlemen, half a month ago, the warehouses of major grain merchants in Guangdong also caught fire, and more than two million stone of grain were burned."

"Losers and evildoers."

Xia Yuanji held his heart and scolded: "Back then, if the grandfather's family could have a mouthful of surplus grain to cook, if the south and north of the Yangtze River did not starve to death and millions of starvations, there would be no Ming I am today."

Even in the present day, how many people in the southwest and northwest have no rice to cook, and they are hungry and waiting for even a mouthful of brown rice and bran, and these bastards in Zhejiang and Guangdong, for their own selfishness, actually burned millions of stones of refined grain, so bad of food, I really want to peel them all and cramp. ”

"They didn't burn it wrong."

At this time, Zhu Yunwen suddenly opened his mouth, making all the discussion and criticism come to an abrupt end.

"Not only are they going to burn, but we're going to burn it, and we're going to burn more than they do."

Xia Yuanji was dumbfounded, and several people didn't understand what the emperor meant, only Yan Zhen sighed.

"If you don't burn food, the world will be over."

"Just now, Yan Qing said that we have a catastrophe of subversion of the Qiankun, and I deeply believe that it is not only the subversion of the Qiankun, but it may even be the disaster of the country."

Zhu Yunwen stepped down from the royal couch, sat next to a few people, and talked about the reason at close range.

"In my mouth, there are more than 60 million people who depend on the land for food, and their quality of life depends on how much grain they can sell every year, and once India's grain is imported, even if they go to sell grain, no one will collect it.

Grain is no longer just a matter of price, but has directly become an output without any commercial value, grain cannot be sold, and the people can only keep it for themselves, but they have lost the way to exchange for money, and they have no money, and they cannot afford to buy salt, oil, sauce and vinegar, let alone buy clothes and other items.

If you don't eat salt for a long time, you will die.

In the long run, the people will 'flee' from the land, no production and farming, more than 60 million people have nothing to do, and my Ming has no other place to accommodate these people, they will all become displaced people, and at that time, my Ming will die. ”

In later generations, there was a so-called shelf-life system for food, which everyone knows, but everyone may not know much about the predecessor of the shelf-life system.

After the East India Company's first grain was delivered back to John Bull, it led to the bankruptcy of a large number of farmers, and at the same time, countless homesteaders who depended on the land for their livelihood fled production, and the land began to become barren.

At this time, John Bull formulated a policy that all stored grains, bread, butter and other edible products must be destroyed after a certain period of time.

This is, of course, impossible, and is mandated to forcibly define them as expired food, and thus to destroy them.

This was the predecessor of the shelf-life system.

Whether it is John Bull or in the East India Company, every year, more than 10 million tons of grain are destroyed, and one ton is about 123 stones, that is, hundreds of millions of stones.

"It was because I didn't think about it properly that there was such a big hidden disaster, but fortunately, we found it early, and the evil consequences have not been planted yet."

Zhu Yunwen opened his mouth to praise Yan Zhenzhi's timely report, and said to everyone: "I am not ready for this, and I do not have the ability to fully digest this batch of grain, let alone the ability to transform tens of millions of homesteaders after they are out of production.

My plan is that this year's batch of grain from India will not be brought back, but will be directly taken to Taiwan and burned. ”

"Your Majesty, this is hundreds of millions of stone grain."

Xia Yuanji almost died suddenly on the spot, and said in a lamented voice: "The thirty-one years of the Hongwu Dynasty's grain endowment are only such a number, just like that, all burned?" ”

"Burn!"

Zhu Yunwen didn't feel the slightest distress, and even his complexion didn't change: "Not only this year, but also next year, as long as you can't digest it every year, you will burn it all, and you won't keep one or two." ”

"Then Your Majesty, why don't you send this grain to the northwest and southwest?"

Xia Yuanji also wanted to try to keep the next point: "At present, there are still hundreds of thousands of people in Gansu and Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, and there are still hundreds of thousands of people who are hungry and poor, let's leave 10 million stones down, which is more than enough to feed these three provinces, won't the people of the world tell Your Majesty about benevolence and righteousness?" ”

"Wei Zhe."

Before Zhu Yunwen could speak, Yang Shiqi had already explained this: "Don't you hear the words that you don't suffer from widowhood and loneliness, in the three provinces of Suyun, Guizhou and Guizhou, the people are constrained by the barren land and it is difficult to feed their stomachs, and the imperial court uses work for relief and organizes the people to build factories and mine mines, so that the people can still have money to buy grain and work hard."

And once the free grain is given, the people will be lazy, and the three provinces of Suyungui will no longer have the power of progress and development, and the provinces of the world will see it, and the people will know that even if they don't farm, the imperial court has the ability to support them, who is willing to continue to sweat in the ridges all day long?

As a result, the situation returned to the situation of displaced people, and a large number of people began to flee the fields, which was the way to destroy the country. ”

"So why not just stay in India?"

Several people's brows furrowed, and they looked at Xie Jin, who made this immature opinion.

The latter suddenly shut up, knowing that he had said an ignorant childish remark.

"If you give a dog a bone every day, for ninety-nine days, and you don't give it to it on the hundredth day, it will bark at you.

And the same dog, you drink and scold it every day, but on the hundredth day give it a bone, it will wag its tail at you. ”

Zhu Yunwen told a simple story: "I can't consume this grain in the Ming Dynasty, so let's reduce the taxes in India, so that the Indian people can live comfortably, and when we have the ability to consume these grains, we want to levy this tax, are the people of India still willing?"

Therefore, we must take this grain away, and we can't keep it in the local area, and even if we burn it, we can't keep it in the local area. ”

"And the solution?"

It is not a long-term solution to always rely on burning grain to maintain the stability of the domestic grain production and marketing system, and Xia Yuanji felt dizzy when he thought about burning hundreds of millions of stones of grain every year.

"Land acquisition first."

Yan Zhen directly passed Xia Yuanji's question and said: "The imperial court came forward to expropriate land, prompting the people to leave the land to engage in other work, increasing the output of supplies needed in daily life, and gradually turning yeoman farmers into handicraftsmen, craftsmen, textile workers, and breeders, and gradually releasing a large amount of agricultural productivity and transforming it into other industrial productivity.

Including the expansion of the production of wineries, so that the consumption of food, the amount of consumption and consumption increases, and the demand increases, it will make the price of grain stable or even upward, the income of yeoman farmers increases, and the price of other consumption in life becomes cheap and continues to decline, including wine, salt, oil, sauce and vinegar, daily tools, meat food, and so on, at that time, tens of millions of people in my Ming Dynasty will live a good life.

It wasn't until the grain from India, Siam and other grain-producing areas that was transported into my Ming Dynasty began to seamlessly connect with the local grain production and marketing system and stabilized, at that time, I thought that the people of my Ming Dynasty could even live a life with meat, even if it couldn't be so, but when they wanted to eat, they wouldn't pick and search and couldn't get the money. ”

The benefits of having a colony to the colonial country are undoubtedly huge, but the requirements for the colony are also exceptionally high, and they must be high-quality leek fields.

The industrial revolution in John Bull's homeland went so smoothly thanks to the expropriation of the East India Company, which in turn allowed the entire native population to live in a relatively comfortable environment with low prices.

Because the quality of life is better, the pressure of survival no longer exists, and some strange ideas will be born in the minds of ordinary people, and they will have the energy to experiment and realize them.

The most representative is the boom of various handicrafts, such as the watch business.

Ordinary people began to have the leisure energy to research and invent some small objects that were not needed in the past survival, instead of burying their heads in the ridges of the fields all day long, sweating like rain to plan.

Occupying one India can bring about tremendous changes in the whole world in the coming decades, and this change will happen slowly in all aspects, and finally, quantitative change will lead to qualitative change.

And before this great change, there is an inevitable period of pain.

Fortunately, it was Yan Zhenzhi who discovered and reported to Zhu Yunwen in time, otherwise, once thousands of sea ships entered Quanzhou, millions or even tens of millions of homesteaders would go bankrupt directly, and what a huge damage would be caused to the country.

With the passage of time, there will eventually be a day when half of the people of the Ming Dynasty will be separated from agricultural production and become producers and workers from all walks of life.

A hundred smart craftsmen with technical experience may not be able to push the technological leap, but what about a thousand, ten thousand, one hundred thousand?

As long as there are enough good leek fields, the Ming Dynasty even has the opportunity to reach the production level and technological level of the 21st century in the 17th century.

Yan Zhenzhi and Zhu Yunwen worked together to outline a magnificent and brilliant blueprint for the future of the Ming Dynasty, and this blueprint foundation also greatly stimulated the rest of the cabinet.

No one has any opinions.

"Sichuan Zigong has salt wells, has not been vigorously developed, the reason is that there is a shortage of manpower and development, transportation and other aspects of the problem, since to requisition land, the direction of transformation of productivity, the minister suggested, first in Sichuan to do a pilot, at the same time instructed the Ministry of Industry to solve the geographical difficulties around the Zigong salt field."

Yang Shiqi's proposal made Zhu Yunwen nod frequently: "We are now crossing the river by feeling the stones, both fast and cautious, the number of people in Sichuan is not large, and it is indeed possible to use it as the first pilot." ”

"First Sichuan and then Yunnan and Guizhou, then Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hebei, from these places to the inland gradually advanced, and finally Henan, Hebei, Jiangnan and other agricultural provinces."

Several members of the cabinet quickly formulated a new national policy on this matter, Zhu Yunwen nodded, and the matter was settled.

"Your Majesty should rest earlier, take care of the dragon's body."

Shuangxi muttered in a low voice, and Zhu Yunwen noticed that at this time, the outside of the hall was even clouded.

"In one more hour, it's time to hold a court meeting, how can there be a rest, and then discuss and see if there are any other details that need to be added, it is related to the livelihood of tens of millions of people, and we can't be easily slowed down."

The monarchs and ministers all smiled bitterly, and simply added a cup of strong tea to each of them, and continued to discuss some details of this national policy.

For more than an hour, it was already completely bright outside the hall, and Zhu Yunwen, who was sore all over, stretched out his waist, and took a few ministers who were as good as him but energetic, and walked towards the Fengtian Palace.