Li Yan did not disappoint Zhu Cihe, and in just a few days, he suppressed most of the opposition voices, relied on his own talent and Zhu Cizhen's support to sit firmly in the position of the first assistant of the Ming Dynasty, and began to exercise his responsibility of leading hundreds of officials.

On the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, just after the New Year, in order to restore the economy and people's livelihood in the north, Zhu Cijiao and Li Yan formulated a policy of returning the population to the north.

"Drive!" A large number of errand soldiers, such as Jinyi Guard, galloped fast horses in the southern provinces.

"The emperor has decreed, the north is newly determined, there is a large amount of idle land, and those who voluntarily settle in the north can get 30 acres of fertile land for each mouth, tax exemption for three years, and the court bears all the relocation and entanglement, and another"

Although the northern parts have been recovered, they have experienced decades of war, the population has died, and those who have fled, even less than one-third of the population in the Wanli period, plus many scholars who have a large amount of land have been exterminated, and there are countless idle lands, which is enough to migrate more than 20 million people to the north.

As soon as the holy decree came out, there was an endless stream of people returning to the north, and on the south bank of the Yangtze River, the black oppressive population stood and looked at the north in the distance.

"Grandpa, are we going back to our hometown?" A six-year-old asked his grandfather, who is in his fifties.

This is a family of six, three children, an old man in his fifties, and a husband and wife.

"Yes, back to our hometown, we have been away from there for twelve years, it's time to go back, the graves of your great-ancestors have not been taken care of for so many years, and I don't know what has become of them." The old man replied.

The old man's hometown was originally in Shanxi, there were three sons, two of whom were killed in the war, only the youngest three sons remained, in order to avoid the war, twelve years ago the old man had to flee to Jiangnan with the teenage three sons, and now so many years have passed, the three sons not only married a daughter-in-law in Jiangnan, but also gave birth to three children, the oldest is the six-year-old child in front of the old man, and the youngest is a pair of two-year-old twins, who are being held in the arms of the couple.

Originally lived in Jiangnan for 12 years, and his daughter-in-law was also from Jiangnan, the old man didn't want to return to his original hometown, but the conditions offered by the imperial court were too good, and the family's ancestral graves were still in his hometown, so he couldn't abandon it, so he could only choose to go back.

"Dad, the eldest brother and the second brother were just hastily buried back then, and after returning to their hometown, let's find a way to rebury them." The old man's son said suddenly.

The old man's eyes were instantly dyed with sadness.

"Okay." It took a while for the old man to say the word.

I still remember that the eldest son and the second son were killed in front of him in order to protect the family from being looted, when the old man sent the black-haired man, and he was really powerless, so he could only bury the eldest son and the second son hastily, and he couldn't even pile up the grave, and he didn't know what the situation was after he went back.

There are many people in the same situation as Lao Han's family, many of whom have a stable life in Jiangnan, but there are also too many things in their hometown that they are difficult to give up, so most of the people who chose to return to the north this time were about millions of people in the first batch.

On the Yangtze River, hundreds of warships sailed up.

This is the navy's warship, in order to tow the people across the river, Zhu Cihe's order to requisition thousands of civilian ships and let the warships of the two major naval fleets cooperate.

The people boarded boats to cross the river, and almost all of the people in this first wave were people who had returned to their hometowns and had their own firm goals.

A month later, five million people crossed the river.

"Your Majesty, the number of people who ask to return to the north is getting smaller and smaller, and if this continues, at most only 10 million people are willing to return to the north, which is far from the goal of 20 million." Li Yan came to Zhu Cihe's imperial study to report to Zhu Cihe.

The Ming Dynasty has a population of more than 120 million, of which the north has been in war for many years, and the population of Liaodong and Manchuria together is only more than 30 million, and only one-third of the south, at least more than 20 million people must be migrated to balance the north and the south.

Zhu Ci frowned, the conditions set out in the holy decree were already extremely generous, and he couldn't figure out why he couldn't attract enough people for a while.

"What do you suggest?" Zhu Ci asked Li Yan.

"Back to the emperor, the minister visited secretly and learned the reason why most of the people were not attracted." Li Yan said.

"Oh? Aiqing has already found the reason! Come on! Zhu Ci was overjoyed.

"Yes!"

"Your Majesty, although the conditions of 30 acres of fertile land per mouth offered by the imperial court are attractive, it ignores the most important point, when manpower is poor, no matter how much land you have, you must have the ability to cultivate. After decades of war in the north, more than ninety percent of the cattle were almost lost for various reasons, and the people had no cattle, and they could not cultivate too much land after returning to the north, while in the south, they already had a small amount of land, which was just suitable for them to plant, if the problem of cattle cultivation was not solved, I am afraid that no amount of land could attract more people. Li Yan analyzed that as soon as he found out about this problem, he personally went to find the cause, and after three days of visiting, he finally found out some.

Zhu Ci was stunned for a while, and then realized that the problem was here, indeed, when the manpower is poor, no matter how much land there is, it has to be cultivated vigorously, without cattle, even if the people return to the north, they will not be able to cultivate much land, which will have a great impact on the recovery of the economy and people's livelihood in the north, and must be solved.

"Since Aiqing has found the reason, I don't know if there is a way to solve it." Zhu Ci asked again.

In fact, Zhu Ciji also faintly thought of a solution in his heart, but he still wanted to listen to Li Yan's suggestion first.

"Back to the emperor, the minister did think of a way, but he needed a holy decree from the emperor! It may even require the emperor to mobilize a large army to cooperate. Li Yan said meaningfully, I don't know what the method is, it is surprising that the army needs to be mobilized to cooperate.

"Aiqing is saying, Mongolian steppe!" A hint of sharpness flashed in Zhu Ci's expression, and he said Li Yan's method in one mouth.

Indeed, the Mongolian steppe has the most cattle and horses in the world, and Mongolian herdsmen have the most cattle and horses.

Speaking of this, Zhu Ci suddenly remembered that a few months ago, when he recovered Liaodong, Manchuria and other places, and had destroyed Horqin and Mongolia, he had not only war horses, but also millions of cattle and sheep, including 300,000 head of cattle.

Although 200,000 head of cattle seems to be a lot, it is indeed a big shortage compared to the huge north, and the only way to solve it is to ask for it again from the Mongolian steppe.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Li Yan was taken aback, he didn't expect that as soon as he opened his mouth, the emperor knew the beginning and the end, and it seemed that the emperor was the same as he thought.

"The minister expected that the Mongols would not blame the monster for handing over cattle and horses, so please ask the emperor to send troops to be stationed at the edge of the Great Wall for deterrence!" Li Yan said with a solemn face.

"Quasi-play!" Zhu Ci nodded and said.

At the same time, in order to deter Mongolia, Zhu Ciqi also ordered 70,000 troops including the First Army and the Seventh Army of Yinglong Army to carry out large-scale gun exercises in the Mongolian steppe, and at the same time ordered the 40,000 troops left in Datong to cross the Great Wall and camp in the Mongolian steppe near the Great Wall.

The shock of the 110,000-strong army, when the Mongolian tribes received Zhu Ci's holy decree, although they were angry, but Horqin and Chahar had learned from the past, but no one really dared to resist, and the tribes had no choice but to gather enough millions of cattle and horses to send them into the pass.

With the million cattle and horses sent by the Mongols, plus the original 300,000 head of cattle, Zhu Ciji once again decreed that anyone who moved to the north could get one ploughing ox for every three households, and the tax exemption was increased from the original three years to five years.

The five-year tax exemption and the distribution of ploughing cattle once again lured more people to move north.

On the south bank of the Yangtze River, once again the people of the black pressure gathered, this large-scale migration will be supported for several months, when the population of the north and the south will be basically balanced, and the economy and people's livelihood will gradually return to prosperity.