Chapter 57 Water Conservancy Projects in the World

When the grain of the Ming Dynasty was at its lowest, it was 250 wen and one stone.

However, it was in the Xuande period, the early years of orthodoxy, when the Empress Dowager was in power.

Zhu Qizhen also had some shame.

After he became in power, it can be called a lot of events in the world, so the price of grain has never fallen, of course, Zhu Qizhen is also very concerned about his reputation, and the price of private grain has always been on Zhu Qizhen's desk.

No matter which prefecture and city grain prices, Zhu Qizhen can find out from the desk.

Once the price of grain increases, Zhu Qizhen always has to ask.

Generally speaking, after seven years of orthodoxy, the price of grain in various parts of the Ming Dynasty was maintained in the range of 250 to 500 Wen, and if it was a good year, it would be a little lower, but no matter how low it was, it was not lower than 250 Wen. If it is a normal year, or a disaster year, it is likely to jump higher. Even more than 500 Wen, to 600 Wen, 700 Wen, and even higher.

Especially in the years after the 14th year of orthodoxy, grain prices hovered around 400 wen for a long time.

Now this catastrophe, no matter how Zhu Qizhen controls it, it is inevitable that the price of grain will soar.

In other places, maybe Zhu Qizhen can relax a little, but Beijing can't, Beijing is a city where all grain is imported from outside, and if the price of grain is high, there will be many small people who can't afford to eat.

You must know that Shaofu has many craftsmen in the south of the city, and they are already about the same as the workers, and the price of grain has increased several times, so there will be problems.

Li Xian also understood this and said: "Please rest assured, Your Majesty, no matter what, before May next year, the price of grain in Beijing will never exceed 500 Wen." ”

There was a sense of determination in Li Xian's words.

In this way, Zhu Qizhen is a little relieved.

Don't look at Li Xian's compassionate heart on weekdays, but Zhu Qizhen knows that Li Xian also has a spicy side, if Li Xian is just a good person, he will never be able to get to his current position.

Some of the things Li Xian has done are really good means, killing people does not dirty hands, and I don't know who did it until I die, if it weren't for Zhu Qizhen's extraordinary control over Beijing, he would have been deceived by Li Xian.

Of course, this is not a minus for a first assistant, but an addition.

If you don't hear it, it's called expelling dissidents. But if you don't exclude dissidents, if you can't even do this well, how can you control a country?

Therefore, since Li Xian said this, Zhu Qizhen felt sad for the grain merchants in Beijing. If they hoard goods, or even don't have to hoard goods, as long as they need it, Li Xian will not be afraid to borrow people's heads.

Sometimes civil officials kill people, and they are more vicious than Zhu Qizhen.

Li Xian continued: "It's not too late to make amends, this is Wang Yonghe's trip to the tour just came up, please take a look." ”

Zhu Qizhen said: "No, I have already seen it." ”

After all, the process of handling government affairs has always been transferred to Zhu Qizhen here by the celebrant and then to the cabinet.

If an emperor is not diligent in government, Zhu Qizhen may miss it, but Zhu Qizhen never looks at the governor's recitals, and after the cabinet reads it, he will read it together with the cabinet's votes.

However, Zhu Qizhen must first look at the cabinet, the six ministries, the governors and governors of various places, and even the chief military officers of various places.

Wang Yonghe proposed three major water conservancy projects.

The first is the governor of Jingzhou.

After the Yangtze River exits the Three Gorges, it is the most dangerous here in Jingzhou. And this flood proves it. Therefore, Wang Yonghe proposed to build a stone embankment in Changli in the Jingzhou section of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, so that the river defense could be strengthened, and even if there was a big flood in the future, there would not be such a big incident.

You must know that the Jingzhou section of the Yangtze River, even when it is placed in the flood control every year, is a big problem.

Secondly, it is to open the Huai River into the sea.

This time, the banks of the Huai River are another key disaster area, not only downstream, but also upstream, and many floods in the upper reaches are due to the unfavorable drainage of the upper reaches, and the Huai River overflows.

Again, it's a big project.

The third major project is the project of dredging the Taihu Lake into the sea.

This is the smallest of the three projects, but it is also the most important one, and the reason is very simple, that is, the economic center of gravity of the Ming Dynasty has always been in the south of the Yangtze River.

Even if Zhu Qizhen has always wanted to boost the economy of the north, for a long time, the economy of the north is not as good as that of the south of the Yangtze River, and the location of Taihu Lake is the center of the south of the Yangtze River.

There is a problem in Taihu Lake, which affects the surrounding prefectures and counties, and there are great economic losses.

If this project is successful, the economy of Jiangnan is preserved, and even if there is a catastrophe in the future, the imperial court will have a little more room for maneuver.

In fact, this project was completed by Hai Rui in later generations, that is, the Wusong River went out to sea from the Huangpu River, laying the pattern of the current Shanghai water system.

Zhu Qizhen looked at it with a headache.

How many years has the emperor been now, and he has also heard the sound of the strings and knows the elegance.

Li Xian was not the kind of person who likes to make great achievements and like to build water conservancy. But now it is more and more biased towards the water conservancy faction, that is, the officials who have emerged from the Hebei water conservancy project.

In general with the College of Water Conservancy, water conservancy is compulsory everywhere you go.

Of course, this is also the influence of Zhu Qizhen.

But is Li Xian, like them, determined to build water conservancy, can the benefits of the people be rejuvenated and the harm of the people destroyed? No, Li Xian wanted to oppose the war against Annan.

As soon as Li Xian opened his mouth, some thoughts could not be hidden from Zhu Qizhen, and what Zhu Qizhen did, even if he bypassed some things in the cabinet, did not prevent Li Xian from making some judgments about Zhu Qizhen.

That is, Zhu Qizhen has the heart to destroy Annan.

I remembered that during the Yongle period, he fought in Annan for 30 years, and the people were injured and the world was boiling. Li Xian has a sense of mission. That is, it is necessary to stop what the emperor is doing?

Even Li Xian came forward to summon Wu Shilian, although he did not promise anything, but the cabinet chief assistant was willing to see Wu Shilian, which in itself was a signal.

Li Xian's behavior seems to be a bit self-defeating.

Since the current emperor's temperament is very active and evil, and he is unwilling not to make some big moves, then make trouble in the country, don't you like to build water conservancy?

Li Xian took the initiative to search for water conservancy projects that needed to be built in various places, such as the Jingzhou Long Causeway, the Huai River into the sea, the Taihu Lake into the sea, the Weishan Lake Project, as well as the Qianli Sea Pond in Zhejiang, and even the embankments of Poyang Lake and Dongting Lake.

These projects can be built for as little as one or two years or more than ten years, and they cannot be built at the same time. Otherwise, it was decided to let Zhu Qizhen follow Emperor Yang of Sui in one fell swoop.

There is also the Chi Road network that Zhu Qizhen has always insisted on building.

Li Xian didn't believe it, in such a situation, Zhu Qizhen still had money and food to fight Annan, which was thousands of miles away.

It's just that Li Xian can't shake Zhu Qizhen's heart to expand south, not even for anything else, just for food. Who from later generations did not know the convenience of food production in Southeast Asia.

Among the world's rice-producing countries, China occupies 30 percent, while Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and Myanmar all rank in the top 10, and the sum of these five countries should account for about 20 percent of the world's rice production.

This is also the reason why farmland may not be fully developed in many countries except Vietnam.

And that's just rice.

Southeast Asia is a granary, although grain production is still very inefficient today, but Zhu Qizhen believes that after he occupied these places, a large number of immigrants, in the future, will never be the Huguang to be familiar with the world, but the South China Sea.

In this day and age, food production cannot be overemphasized.

Even if you don't say anything, the advantages of navigation and commerce, this alone will make Annan doomed, and it is nothing more than the innocence of the husband and the guilt of his guilt.

But Zhu Qizhen didn't want to tear his face with Li Xian, after all, the governance of the country still depends on Li Xian, so he snorted and said: "The imperial court is now overstretched, the project of Taihu Lake can be done, I am in charge, allocate 500,000 taels of silver from the inner treasury, and then there is a place to raise a little money, it will be almost the same, and the rest of the things will be put aside first." ”

Although Zhu Qizhen made up his mind to destroy Annan, it does not mean that Zhu Qizhen did not have the slightest idea about the advancement of the Daming Water Conservancy Project.

It's just that under the order of the front and back, it's just different.

It's not that Zhu Qizhen doesn't sympathize with the suffering of the people, but there are some things that Zhu Qizhen can do, and others can do them, but there are some things that Zhu Qizhen can do, and others may not be able to do them.