Of course, the three major artifacts of the Americas are the key magic weapons to save Ming, but in fact, this matter is definitely not as simple as imagined, is it enough to get seeds

When Gao Shishi was studying at the party school in his previous life, he had heard the party school teacher roughly talk about the promotion of the three high-yield crops in China, and after listening to it, he did not think that these three major crops could be quickly spread out in the land of China.

To explain this reason, we have to start with the introduction of these three major crops. When corn was introduced to China is a matter of different opinions. There is a view that corn was introduced as early as 12 years before the Ming Dynasty. Of course, the mainstream view was introduced only after Columbus arrived in the new university in the fifth year of the Ming Dynasty.

However, there is disagreement about the exact timing point. There are various theories such as 15 years, 1531 years, 156 years, and 1572 years, and the accounts of the distribution channels are also very inconsistent, and there are three major views and a combination of the three major views through the northwest, southwest, and southeast sea routes.

Gao Pragmatic went to study economics at the time, and he didn't study it deeply or simply said that he didn't study it at all, but in fact, he just heard the teacher mention it, so he couldn't judge which one was true. However, from the feeling alone, he felt that the sea route seemed more likely, but this thing was useless by "feeling" alone.

Anyway, corn was not widely used until the early Tatar Qing Dynasty, although it was already cultivated all over the country, and that was for sure. It was really popularized on a large scale during the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods, because of the pressure of large-scale population growth, the Tatar Qing government began to promote it on a large scale. Relatively speaking, it was widely planted in the south earlier than in the north, and it was not even in the late Qing Dynasty and the early years of the Republic of China that it began to be popularized on a large scale in the north.

So, what about sweet potatoes, there used to be a saying that China already had sweet potatoes in the Han and Jin dynasties. However, agricultural history generally disagrees with this view, and the mainstream view is that the sweet potato, that is, yam, was present during the Han and Jin dynasties. The time when the real sweet potato was introduced to China is first believed to be introduced in the 20th year of Hongwu, but few people agree, and the mainstream view is that this species was only introduced in China during the Wanli period.

By the end of the Ming Dynasty, sweet potatoes were planted on a large scale in Fujian and Guangdong, and a small amount in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, that is to say, before the early Tatar Qing Dynasty, sweet potatoes were only widely planted in the south of the Yangtze River. During the Qianlong period, due to population pressure, in addition to the border areas and Gansu, nationwide planting began. So in the Jiajing and Daoguang periods, sweet potatoes became one of the staple foods.

Let's talk about potatoes. The earliest time when this object was introduced into China should be the Wanli period, but because the evidence is relatively vague, the academic community recognizes that it is the early Qing Dynasty, and the specific time is the planting record of Taiwan Province in 165 years. The latest record of its introduction is that the Jin merchants introduced it from Kazakhstan through Russian business, and some people believe that the "Huihui yam", that is, the potato, was introduced by the Hui compatriots from the northwest.

However, due to the degradation of potato genera and species, it was introduced many times and in various ways, and it was also in the Qianlong period that it was popularized on a large scale.

It is precisely because these three major artifacts have been fermented for many years and only became powerful in the Qianlong period, so the captive chief Qianlong is obviously a loser, but he can actually mix into the holy monarch in some people's mouths, history is sometimes so ironic.

On the other hand, the end of the Ming Dynasty that introduced the three major artifacts was also unlucky, and he died first before he carried the three major artifacts to recognize the master.

It is precisely because he knows these situations and understands that it is not easy to promote new species, regardless of whether it is because of the degradation of genus and species or the need for time for the common people to accept it, anyway, this thing is definitely not something that can be done in three or five years, so Gao Pragmatic can only send people to collect seeds while thinking of other ways to alleviate the turmoil caused by the disaster in the north.

What can be done, it is nothing more than the transfer of grain from the south to the north. Because even during the worst period of the Xiaoice period, the south was not greatly affected, and there was no major reduction in production.

But the transfer of grain from the south to the north is not an easy task, the imperial court spends so much effort every year to maintain the canal and control the transportation of grain from the south to the north, and finally has to open another sea transportation, and even if the sea is opened, it is only to maintain the situation so far Of course, this situation is better than the same period in history.

Looking at it this way, the imperial court has no spare strength to continue the transfer of grain from the south to the north, and there are too many aspects that need to be done to increase the intensity of this "adjustment". For example, these grains, although Nanzhili has almost fully popularized a whip method, changing the payment of grain to silver, but with the silver can buy grain, while the price of grain in the south is lower than in the north, even if the transportation consumption and cost are added, it is more cost-effective than buying grain in the north.

This is still from the perspective of economic benefits alone, if from another angle, this money is directly escorted into Beijing to buy grain in the north, then the north will be even more short of grain, so the south-to-north grain transfer by sea must not be shaken, not only can not be shaken, but even strengthened.

However, this is not enough, the main role of these grains is only to supply Gyeonggi, and areas outside Gyeonggi can not enjoy much benefit, once a large-scale natural disaster explodes, the shortage of food will still be in short supply, and the imperial court will not have the spare strength to provide extensive disaster relief, and it is great to give some severely affected areas "three years of exemption" and other treatment, and others can only stare wide-eyed.

Moreover, at present, most of the grain is sent from the Nanzhili generation to the north, but in fact, the grain price in Nanzhili is not particularly cheap. Because the so-called Nanzhili is the later generation of southern Jiangsu and southern Anhui, although the land in this area is good, but because it is an economic area, especially the textile industry, so a lot of land is actually not used to grow grain, but to plant some cash crops, so it is very difficult and not cost-effective to continue to carry out the transfer of grain from the south to the north from this part of Nanzhili.

At present, the only ones who can really support the north with surplus grain are Huguang and Sichuan.

But everyone knows the topography of Sichuan, and transporting grain from the Sichuan Basin out of Sichuan to the north is really difficult for the Shu Road to go to the blue sky, which is almost the difficulty of Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition. Even if you are willing to spend a lot of money to forcibly go to luck, the efficiency must be miserable, even if you think about it, you can at most support Shaanxi.

Therefore, the main focus can only be on Huguang.

Gao pragmatic's idea is not only because he knows that "the lake is ripe, the world is full", but it is supported by actual data, which comes from Gao Gong's work in the Wanli Dynasty in the past six years.

The data obtained from the Qingzhang field of the high arch is roughly similar to that obtained by the historical Zhang Juzheng Qingzhang field. This Qingzhang is actually the second large-scale national farmland census of the Ming Dynasty since the "Hongwu Qingzhang". After this Qing Dynasty, the imperial court compiled a new fish scale atlas, which was more complete than the Yellow Book of Enslavement in the early Ming Dynasty, which was reflected in the following points.

First of all, the land was cleared more thoroughly. This time, not only the land of the people, but also the land occupied by the clan and the prince was also re-measured, and the edict issued by Gao Gong in the name of the emperor was "the country is evenly grained, but there is a violation of obstruction, regardless of the clan, the eunuch, the army and the people, according to the law to deal with it." Due to the strong political pressure on the local officials to "examine the law", the smooth implementation of land clearance was finally ensured, and a total of 15.5 billion mu of concealed land was cleared.

The second is the unification of the acre system. Originally, there was a phenomenon of "large and small mu" in the north, but this time Gao Gong unified the mu system of the whole country by means of "land clearance", and all took 240 steps as one mu. The "unified mu system" has reduced the trouble of collecting taxes and grain, and basically put an end to the loophole in which low-level officials use "large and small mu" to make profits.

The third is the simplification of the rules for the collection of taxes. After the land was cleared, the imperial court divided the land into third-class high-grade water-source fertile fields, medium-barren thin fields, and low-class waterless high fields. When paying taxes, the rules are the same regardless of whether it is official land or private land, 1 mu of high-grade land is actually 1 mu, 15 mu of medium land is converted into 1 mu, and 2 mu of inferior land is converted into 1 mu.

After this clearance, the total cultivated land of the two capitals and the thirteen political divisions was 75.8 billion mu, an increase of 39.1 billion mu compared with the first land clearance in the 14th year of Hongwu. Judging from the results, Huguang, Shandong, and Sichuan had the most serious land concealment, with 55.19 million mu, 36.58 million mu, and 26.45 million mu of cultivated land respectively being found.

According to this data, the simplest truth is that Huguang's grain must be sufficient

But the problem is that this does not mean that Huguang's grain is more in the market out of thin air, but more in the hands of the gentry, landlords, lords and royal families who control the fields, and the imperial court is now just able to collect a little more tax here, and the key problem is how to get the grain out of these people's hands if Huguang really wants to support the Central Plains.