Although rising food prices in disaster years are not uncommon in themselves, profiteers always raise food prices to make huge profits. In the past few months, the price of grain has become higher and higher, and one stone of rice originally cost two taels of silver, but now one stone costs six or seven taels, or even more.

In fact, Jiajing until the early Wanli period, a stone of rice is only worth half a tael of silver, if the harvest year can be cheaper, that is, the early years of Chongzhen, generally a stone of rice grain is only one or two silver.

However, in the past few years, there have been continuous droughts and locusts in various places, disasters and famines have been repeated for many years, coupled with the rampant bandits, Beizhili and Shandong have been looted by Jiannu one after another, and the price of grain has naturally become more and more outrageous. Moreover, in the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, not only the drought in the north, but also the south of the Yangtze River, which is known as the land of fish and rice, is also a year of great drought.

The reduction in grain production in the north and south of the great rivers has directly caused a shortage of grain supply and, of course, has further pushed up grain prices.

“…… Huang Guisun, who lived outside the Jinan Gate and worked in a brick factory, handed over the previous day's salary of 80 yuan to his wife Huang Li, and instructed her to go to a nearby "Dai Yishun" grain store to buy a liter of grain. When Huang Li arrived at the grain store, he was told that the price of grain had risen to 85 wen per liter, and Huang Li, who had been hungry for several days, jumped into the river in despair. Huang Guisun went home at night, grief-stricken, and committed suicide by throwing himself into the water while holding two children who were waiting to be fed. ”

Hearing this, Zhu Guoqiang was stunned for a while, he didn't expect such a tragedy to happen. In fact, in history books, this kind of thing is really common.

However, when I really faced all this, I still couldn't adapt.

"In Texas, a family of six went on a hunger strike for two days, went out to beg, begged all day, and found nothing, so the family used the little food left and cooked a little gruel with arsenic. At noon the next day, the neighbor noticed the abnormality and broke in the door, and the family of six was lying neatly on the bed, all of which had already lost their breath. ”

……

Although Yan Ermei only reported a few tragic incidents mentioned in Song Xuezhu's letter, the appalling tragic events set off a storm in Zhu Guoqiang's heart.

"How so? Didn't you open a porridge shed? ”

"Lord Shizi, the porridge shack is set up in the resettlement center, and these suicides are all civilians in the city...... Now that food prices are getting higher and higher, the income of ordinary people is really unsustainable! ”

Seeing that the prince didn't speak, Yan Ermei said.

"Governor Song said in the letter that the current grain price has been as high as eight taels and one stone, which is the land of fish and rice in the south of the Yangtze River, and it is also as high as six or seven taels, and if this continues, people will starve to death every day!"

"Has the government sold affordable grain?"

Zhu Guoqiang asked.

"Governor Song has ordered all prefectures and counties to put 100 stone of rice grain every day to stabilize grain prices, if it weren't for the affordable grain of these governments, I don't know how high the grain prices in Shandong would be."

With that, Yan Ermei sighed again.

"Shiziye, in fact, the most important thing now is to let the grain merchants in the province not increase the price, the second is that there must be food, at the beginning of the year Shiziye in Jinan there are still more than 260 thousand stone grain, but now there is only less than 1.3 million stone left, these grains must not only relieve the displaced people, but also to distribute grain, and then stabilize the price of grain, sooner or later when it runs out, if it runs out......"

Without waiting for Yan Ermei to finish speaking, Zhu Guoqiang said in a deep voice.

"Immediately send a message to all the big grain merchants in Shandong in my name, from now on, the grain price in Shandong, compared with the grain price two months ago, but if the increase is more than one percent, I will directly send troops to copy his grain line, I want to see if they want money or death."

Anyway, for the outside world, he is not arrogant for a day or two, and Zhu Guoqiang is not worried about the punishment of the imperial court, after all, he is now almost equivalent to a semi-independent warlord.

"As for the food ......"

At this time, Zhu Guoqiang once again thought of Southeast Asia, thought of the local rice grain, in fact, the Ming Dynasty has always had the tradition of exporting rice from abroad, as early as the Wanli period, because of the southeast coast due to the rapid increase in population and the development of the commodity economy caused by the "rice production is not enough for the people's food", there are maritime merchants from overseas to import rice to alleviate the food crisis. That is, the so-called "East rice is insufficient, West rice is enough, West rice is insufficient, foreign rice is enough." ”。

"Do you know that there are many people in Fujian and other places, what do the people feed on?"

"The prince?"

"The east rice is insufficient, the west rice is good, the west rice is insufficient, and the foreign rice is enough." , Yomi ......"

After a pause, Zhu Guoqiang said.

"Fujian and other southeastern coastal areas have been eating foreign rice for decades, I heard that Siam and other places have sufficient rice grain, and the value is also cheap, just a few dollars of silver, you can buy rice for one stone, although the road is far away, there is always a profit to be transported over, well, go back and inform the sailors, let them draw a few ships to Siam, try to transport hundreds of thousands of stone of grain, stabilize the price of grain......"

After thinking about it, Zhu Guoqiang said again.

"There is also the reclamation of the estuary area, which is extremely fertile for the cultivation of rice, despite the mosquito breeding in the Mekong Delta. Buying grain is not a long-term solution after all, and to solve the problem, we still have to rely on growing grain, and the food is still in our own hands! ”

In another world, the fertile Mekong Delta, which is ideal for agricultural production, has always had the highest rice yields in Asia, with its low-lying terrain, dense water network and dense farmland. Today, only a handful of Khmer people live in the area, and it is completely territorial.

This is a good place that is enough to feed tens of millions of people, and if you don't occupy it, you're really sorry to God! As for tropical diseases, there is no problem at all, you can introduce some cinchona trees to Taiwan for planting, anyway, in the era of Japanese occupation, Taiwan was the main production area of cinchona trees, and it was the quinine produced in Taiwan that supported the southward movement of the Japanese army.

Before the cinchona tree grows up, you can buy a few tons of quinine pills, and you have the medicine...... Naturally, there is no need to worry about malaria anymore.

After thinking about it for a while, Zhu Guoqiang said again.

"Yongqing, I plan to set up a reclamation department in the General's Mansion, and you will be responsible for overseas immigration and overseas colonization, I don't know what you think?"

"Do you dare to disobey? Just ......"

Yan Ermei, who was in charge, said worriedly.

"Shizi Ye, whether it is to buy foreign rice, or to colonize the West (1), it is always far from quenching the thirst, the current priority is food, and the minister estimates that with the current demand in Shandong, at least more than two million stone of grain is needed!"

"A million stones!"

Zhu Guoqiang sighed.

"If the current price of grain is used, it will cost tens of millions of taels of silver......

Yan Ermei's exclamation made Zhu Guoqiang say.

"You say, I have donated so much food, how much have other people donated?"

"Lord Shizi, Qian Qianyi raised 360,000 taels of silver in Nanjing earlier, and Governor Song also raised more than 20,000 stone of grain in Shandong......"

"More than 20,000 stones, these people are really generous!"

The strange look in the eyes of the prince Yan Ermei smiled.

"I'm not stupid, I'm going to do those things that set myself on fire, this time I just want to hold a fundraiser and let those rich people contribute."

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the court was poor and the people were poor, but those landlords, rich businessmen and officials were not poor, but they were all rich, and it can be said that most of the wealth of the entire Ming Dynasty was in the pockets of this handful of people.

Zhu Guoqiang wanted to take a handful out of these people's pockets, of course, he couldn't rob them, he could only collect donations and beg them to send money, but as for how to 'beg', he still had the final say.

"Donations, what if they don't want to donate?"

朱国强 says:

"It doesn't matter if they want to donate or not, the most important thing is to let them donate food!"

Yan Ermei asked, "The prince plans to force donations?" ”

"Forced donations? Am I that kind of person......"

Zhu Guo laughed, and then said to Yan Ermei in detail.

"When the time comes, I'm going to get them to willingly take out all the food."

After hearing this, Yan Ermei asked with some surprise:

"They willingly brought out the food. I'm afraid this matter is not so easy, and how many of those people are aware of current affairs? ”

Zhu Guoqiang is domineering:

"If they don't know the times, I will tell them to know the times!"

To be honest, we are afraid of everything, but we are not afraid that they will not know the current affairs. For Zhu Guoqiang, he is really not afraid that those people don't know the current affairs, the more arrogant they are, the easier it is to deal with.

(1) The term "Western" in the Ming Dynasty included the meaning of overseas countries.