This confusion is naturally to be solved, and Gan Qi said such a large number of words in front of his head, which is to lead to this problem. щ.com

Then Gan Qi looked around and began to explain: "Think about it, since the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, it has been almost a hundred years, and the population has increased by three or four times, so can there be three or four times more acres of land?" ”

Su Zhe really became a serious student at this time, and immediately replied: "Brother Daojian, people can give birth to more and more, and raise more and more, but where can the acres of land be conjured out of nothing?" The good fields and good land that can produce have been cultivated for thousands of years by successive dynasties, and those that can be developed have already been developed, and the places that can be developed have long been occupied by people, so how can they still stay in the wilderness and wait for people? Even if the wasteland is cleared, it is still some barren places, and there is not much food to grow when you grow some melons, fruits and vegetables. So where can the number of acres of land be doubled? It is what the official family said, and it is also said that the world is produced, and there is a fixed number. ”

"Yes, the number of products produced in the world is almost a certainty, so how can the extra tens of millions of people have food to eat?" Gan Qi asked.

"That's my Great Song Dynasty treasure Tianhua, rich in products, coupled with the imperial court's diligent cultivation of water conservancy and irrigation, planting methods, planting tools, and many developments, not comparable to the previous dynasty. That's why we can feed tens of millions of people. "Su Zhe can be the prime minister, and his knowledge is naturally not ordinary.

Gan Qi nodded and said, "Well, Ziyou is a great talent." But in the final analysis, no matter how it develops, the number of acres of land cannot be changed out of thin air, and the output of the field cannot be doubled. That is to say, at the beginning of the founding of the country, how much grain was produced in a year, and now, this total has not increased much, but the population has skyrocketed by three or four times. The money and grain in the world is not in the people, but in the officials, so that the population has skyrocketed, and the more food they need to feed these people, does it mean that the income of the imperial court is actually not as good as before? ”

Su Zhe thought for a while and blurted out: "Brother Dao Jian's words are also right, but what...... It seems to be wrong, it stands to reason that the amount of money that the imperial court has earned a lot more than when the country was founded, and now the annual income can reach 60 million yuan. ”

Su Zhe said it well, but there is a problem, that is, the problem of inflation, not that the amount of money has increased, which means that the income has risen.

"But did Brother Ziyou ever think about a truth, at the beginning of the founding of the country, a cow was worth three times, and now the price of cattle has already reached ten times. Is this money more or less? If it really has increased, why is the court unable to make ends meet? Ganchi asked.

Su Zhe licked his lips, and Su Shi replied directly: "Dao Jian's words are reasonable, this statement is reasonable, the amount of money in the imperial court has increased, it does not mean that the imperial court's income has really increased, but it is not as good as before." So what does this have to do with the crisis of chaos? ”

Gan Qi said with a smile: "This is the way to deal with the crisis, for example, the annual output of the whole country can feed tens of millions of people, and at the beginning of the founding of the country, the country's population was more than 30 million. If there is a major drought in Hedong, Hebei Province, and 10 million people are affected, is it not difficult for the imperial court to save them? ”

"That's not difficult, just calculate, the rest of the country is enough to feed the victims for a year, and when the disaster is over, it will be ploughed again next year." Su Zhe replied.

"For example, now, the country's annual output of grain can still feed tens of millions of people. Today, the population of the whole country is 80 million, and there is still a severe drought in Hedong, Hebei, and 30 million people have been affected. Is it difficult for the court to save it? Gan Qi asked again.

Su Zhe calculated in his heart, was shocked, and hurriedly said: "Not to mention that Hebei Hedong did not produce grain due to the disaster, even if it is calculated based on the total amount of grain produced to feed 10,000,000 people, it will not save the disaster of 30 million people." ”

Gan Qi immediately asked again: "What will happen if you can't save it?" ”

What will happen? Su Zhe thought about it with his knees, and he could know what would happen? What else could it be? Naturally, it is to rise up and plunder the Quartet, once the thief rises, this is to make matters worse, at this time, the court is so poor that I am afraid that there is a shortage of food and grass to send troops to quell the rebellion, and the consequences are ...... The consequences are unimaginable.

Gan Qi said this truth, very simple. When the population skyrockets, the country's ability to respond to the crisis has become lower. For example, if a family has five people and works together to produce food that can feed ten people, and a field is destroyed by a flood, it is not a big problem.

Twenty years later, the family has a population of 10, and the food produced by the family is still 10 people, and suddenly a field is washed away by a flood, then someone has to go hungry, and this hungry person, what should I do? He wants to eat someone else's, will someone else want to? Others are full, he can't eat, he doesn't make trouble?

In a small family, if you make a fuss, it will pass, and the whole family will roll up their belts and live together, and they may be able to get by, and even go outside to borrow some foreign debts, so that people will not starve to death.

But this problem escalates to the whole country, hungry for one day, endure for a while, starve for two days, petty theft, hungry for three days, I am afraid that countless people will have to take knives, guns and sticks to rob them.

History has also proved this problem again and again, from the Han and Tang dynasties to the Song and Ming dynasties. The capacity of the population in this part of China has slowly increased according to the level of productivity, and the Han population is about 50 or 60 million, the Tang Dynasty is about 70 million or 80 million, the Song is about 100 million, and the Ming is about 100 million. In the Ming Dynasty, all of them were able to rise sharply because the advent of the Age of Discovery brought many high-yielding food crops, such as corn and sweet potatoes, which far exceeded the production of China's native crops. So by the Qing Dynasty, when these crops were really planted on a large scale throughout the country, in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the Chinese population could reach 400 million, which was almost the peak. It wasn't until later that there was science and technology, chemical fertilizer, machinery, overhaul and construction of water conservancy projects, and even use machinery to cultivate, but the most important thing was Yuan Longping.

Gan Qi asked questions, and he couldn't be saved, what would happen?

The audience was already amazed, Gan Qi's words had already been said here, what would happen, who else could not guess?

Governing the country, how can anyone ever talk about governance like this?

Everyone in the audience was shocked, and the thoughts in their minds seemed to suddenly become precarious.

This is not groundless, because the Great Song Dynasty was already in danger and would have perished in a few decades. The problem that Gan Qi mentioned is not just the drought and the like in the example, the country's excess productive forces are becoming less and less, not only is the ability to withstand natural disasters shrinking, but the ability to resist foreign enemies is naturally becoming weaker and weaker, which is a macro chain reaction.

In this part of East Asia, 30 million Han Chinese, and 100 million Han Chinese, can organize much more armies than others. But a country with 30 million Han Chinese is very different from a country with 100 million Han Chinese. Not to mention the difference between the two in terms of military treatment and investment in ordnance and equipment. Let's just say that in the matter of rewarding military achievements, the Tang Dynasty opened the country, and the military achievements were directly rewarded with large fields, and the Turks ran all over the land. In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, could the emperor still get the land to reward the soldiers? This is also the reason for the decline in the ability to respond to crises.

Of course, there are many micro and detailed reasons, such as the Song Dynasty and the issue of emphasizing literature over martial arts, but these micro details are not what Gan Qi wants to talk about today.

In the silence, Su Shi asked: "Dao Jian is teaching people to admire the five bodies to the ground, throughout the ages, no one has ever said the governance of the country and the rise and fall of the country so thoroughly, since Dao Jian has this heavenly thought, there must be a solution, and please Dao Jian to say it together, come quickly." ”

At this time, all the people in the audience got up, and they wanted to say that these scholars were loyal to the monarch and patriotic, and they were all under the way, and some people were already excitedly shouting: "Please ask Mr. Gan to teach the way of governing the country." ”

"Please, Mr. Gan for the country!"

"Please, Mr. Gan, teach!"