Guo Yun said with great pain: "The regular closing and reserve warehouses in various places have been collected at high prices to protect the price of grain as early as Chongzhen's ten years. ”

Food prices really can't be lower, and if they are lower, they should fucking collapse!

When Emperor Chongzhen first succeeded to the throne, the price of grain had reached a high level of one or two silver and one stone - in the Wanli period, each stone of rice was five yuan of silver, and in the Hongwu period, it was about four yuan and less than five yuan.

According to the third volume of the "Hejian Chronicles": "A husband cultivates thirty or fifty acres of land, and harvests more than one stone of wheat per mu." "The summer wheat and autumn millet are still two stones together.

If you calculate it this way, a family can get 60 taels of grain by cultivating 30 acres of land, and the income in the Hongwu period is about 30 taels, and it is already worth 60 taels in the early years of Chongzhen.

One tael of silver is equivalent to 668 yuan, and 60 taels of silver is about 40,000 yuan - before Emperor Chongzhen's crossing, the salary in many second-tier cities was less than 4,000 yuan per month.

The problem is that the price of prices in the Ming Dynasty is outrageously low, and it can be seen from the "Miscellaneous Records of Wan Agency" written by Shen Bang in Wanli Nian that the price of a live fat chicken is four cents of silver.

The price of a live fat chicken is four cents of silver, which is equivalent to 26 yuan, and the price of a pound of rice is less than three yuan, which is equivalent to only 1.75 yuan, which is roughly equivalent to the price before Emperor Chongzhen's crossing.

Even in the Chongzhen period, prices rose, but before they could rise completely, they were suppressed by Emperor Chongzhen - a large amount of grain purchased through the feudal kingdom directly caused the wealthy merchants who hoarded a large amount of grain to vomit blood.

If we look at the data purely on paper, there is still room for this grain price to be suppressed, at least there is no big problem in suppressing it from the current one tael of silver per stone to five yuan of silver.

But if any traverser dares to do this, it will be a real fool.

Just like when Emperor Chongzhen just crossed over, he set the reason for taking the people of the world, especially the peasants, as the basic plate, there are many wealthy merchants in the Ming Dynasty, serious land annexation, and many big landowners, but more ordinary people who have land in their own homes!

Expensive grain hurts farmers, and cheap grain hurts farmers even more!

Emperor Chongzhen can suppress when natural disasters or something cause prices to rise, because at this time, grain is expensive, and it hurts a large number of ordinary people, and it has nothing to do with the price of grain that hurts wealthy merchants and big landlords.

Ordinary people are not chaotic, and no matter how chaotic those people are, they will not be able to make any big mess.

But the current situation is different from when Emperor Chongzhen first ascended the throne.

The problem now is that with the flow of good seeds from the Royal Academy and the large amount of grain purchased by foreign feudal domains, the price of grain has been suppressed to a low point, which is twice as low as when Emperor Chongzhen first ascended the throne, and lower than that of Wanli time.

Even so, the current price of goods and grain is still in a process of slow decline - especially with the annexation of the Chahar Ministry, Liaodong and Nuergandusi, a large number of cattle and sheep began to pour into the market, and the reduction of meat prices further led to the reduction of grain prices.

At this time, if we take action to suppress grain prices again, it will not be those landlords and wealthy businessmen who will be hurt, but even the people who really farm the land.

What happens when food is worthless?

It's not that some people don't farm, but that everyone doesn't think about farming anymore, or burns the grain they grow to artificially raise the price of food.

But no matter which phenomenon appears, it is definitely not a good phenomenon for the current Ming Dynasty.

Daming is not the Celestial Empire of later generations, and it does not have such a strong risk control ability, and a careless situation is turned upside down, so that the situation that Emperor Chongzhen worked so hard to open is completely over.

It is not impossible to artificially suppress food prices and liberate large numbers of people from the land to complete industrialization quickly, and two of them have done so.

The two halls that did this, one was called the Soviet Union, and the other was called the flower planter, both of which were pulled to the egg, but the Soviet Union did not carry it, and was torn to death, and the elders of the flower planter were more awesome, and they still flew up after the cold.

Facts have proved that the consequences of pulling eggs are very serious, especially when Daming does not have strong risk control capabilities, doing so is really dead.

After pondering for a long time, Emperor Chongzhen spoke: "The price of grain can no longer be suppressed, it is not easy for the people to cultivate, and it is really unreasonable for the imperial court to suppress it again as the parents of the people, it is better to think about the problem that Wen Aiqing just said." ”

Wen Tiren said: "Even if the imperial court does not suppress grain prices, it is bound to reduce the grain purchase price for Chongzhen's fourteenth year, and then think of raising the wages of the people to work outside to induce the people to leave the land." ”

Emperor Chongzhen suddenly set his eyes on Guo Yunhou: "If the budget of the previous ministries is increased by another fifty percent, will the treasury be able to support it?" ”

Although I don't know what kind of demon moth Emperor Chongzhen will make, Guo Yunhou also knows in his heart that now is not the time to pick up the money in the province: "Your Majesty, if it is increased by fifty percent, there will only be about 10 million taels of silver left in the treasury, and once something happens, I am afraid that it will be difficult to deal with."

However, if it were to be raised by only 20 or 30 percent, there would be some more silver left in the treasury. ”

Emperor Chongzhen nodded and said: "Then increase the wages of the people to work, and increase it by two percent on the original basis, so that the people know that the income from going out to work is higher than farming."

The Ministry of Railways, the Ministry of Industry, and the Ministry of Communications, remember to give instructions to these people to provide good road guidance for these workers, and local governments must not make things difficult for the people on the road guidance."

A fine light flashed in Shi Fenglai's eyes, which were already cloudy, and he stroked his beard and said: "Your Majesty, once the salaries of the various ministries of the imperial court are raised, the private workshops must also raise their prices, otherwise they will not be able to recruit workers."

In such a situation, those wealthy merchants and gentry had only one way to go except to raise prices. ”

Emperor Chongzhen nodded and said with a smile: "If it's just to raise some prices, then let them go, if some people don't open their eyes, then it's up to them." ”

Obviously, once the imperial court paid high wages, the wealthy merchants were faced with the situation of not being able to recruit manpower, and the gentry were faced with the situation of not being able to recruit tenants.

In this case, unless wages are raised or rents are lowered, there are really only two ways left.

Either the production cost will be transferred through the act of raising prices together, or it will rebel and lift the Chongzhen Emperor who flipped the table, and all the problems will naturally cease to exist.

But would Emperor Chongzhen care about someone rebelling?

If it was to force the people to rebel, then it was not said, Emperor Chongzhen was more afraid than anyone else, and he was more anxious than anyone else, and he must be thinking about how to quell the rebellion.

If it was a wealthy merchant or a gentry who rebelled, then Emperor Chongzhen could only hehe - raid the family and exterminate the clan to understand? The treasury and the treasury have another amount of income!

After laughing, Emperor Chongzhen changed the topic to another side: "The household department and the Ministry of Rites should also think about it, the enrollment of these people's children should not make these people's children unable to study and difficult to take the exam."

There is also the pension of the court princes, in fact, it can also be implemented on these migrant workers after the proportion is reduced, so that they do not have to worry about what to do when they get old in the future.

In addition, Huimin Pharmacy needs to be changed, these people who go out to work, and they are also the people of Daming, so they can naturally enjoy the preferential treatment of Huimin Pharmacy. ”

After Wen Tiren, Shi Fenglai and the others glanced at each other, they all bowed down in response.

Only then did Emperor Chongzhen point to the outside of the carriage: "Look, unconsciously, I am about to arrive in the capital." ”

Wen Tiren and the others glanced out the car window, and then they found that they were already very close to the capital—about seventy or eighty miles away from the capital.

You know, Tianjin is more than 280 miles away from the capital.

The sweaty BMW can run more than 1,000 miles a day, which is naturally no problem for the more than 200 miles from Beijing to Tianjin, but if it is replaced by other horses, it usually has to stop and rest after running more than 100 miles in a row.

That is to say, from Tianjin to the capital, if you don't care for the horses, it will probably only take more than an hour to run.

If you take care of horsepower, it will take two hours at the fastest and fastest, and it will take about three hours to rest time.

And the train on this trip does not have this problem at all, it has maintained a speed from the beginning to the present, and there is no question of cherishing or not cherishing.

What if it is renewed? What if the speed was a little bit higher?

No one is a fool, especially the bigwigs in the court like Wen Tiren, who look at the problem with a very vicious eye.

Just like Wen Tiren's proposal to suppress grain prices through the imperial court just now, is it really Wen Tiren who didn't see the disadvantages?

Grace is from above!

This kind of thing that benefits the world can't be done by himself, the first assistant, and the other officials can't do it, so he can only let Emperor Chongzhen put it forward and let Emperor Chongzhen be this good person.

It's the same now, judging by this speed, it takes about two hours for the train to get from Tianjin to the capital, which is faster than the normal speed of horseback riding, and this speed may be even faster in the future - and the power of the train is much stronger than that of the horse-drawn carriage.

This also means that in the future, the speed of communication between goods in various parts of Daming will be greatly increased, and when Tianjin's sea fish are transported to the capital, they may still be alive!

It's all white silver! It's all taxes!

Must do! The railroad must be repaired, overhauled!

After making up his mind, Wen Tiren set his eyes on Cui Yongan: "Does Cui Shilang know the progress of the construction of the railway on the other side of the Yellow River?" ”

Cui Yongan suddenly despaired - what are you afraid of!

After cheering himself up, Cui Yongan lowered his eyebrows and said: "Xia Guan went to the Mughal to explore the terrain before, and he really didn't know much about the situation on the other side of the Yellow River?" ”

Wen Tiren stroked his beard and said with a smile: "This time, I want to see how the Ministry of Railways and the Ministry of Industry solve the matter of the Yellow River." ”

Emperor Chongzhen also nodded and said: "If the bridge can be built, it can be built a railway bridge for trains, and then a bridge for carriages and horses to pass."

I just don't know if the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Railways are sure that they can build the bridge now, if not, I'm afraid that they still need to take a ferry to transfer on the side of the Yellow River. ”

Wen Tiren stretched out his hand and gestured on the table in front of him: "The minister remembers that the narrowest part of the Yellow River is only three or four zhang, and the width is four or five miles.

And if my Ming Dynasty railway wants to cross the Yellow River, it will not only build a bridge, but also build more than ten places.

From the capital to Nanjing, it is necessary to pass through this section of the Jinan River, which is about two miles wide, even if the flow of water in the river has been reduced now, it is not easy to build it. ”

When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he pondered.

The bridge of later generations was made of concrete, and the Ming Dynasty had cement, so it must not be too difficult to make concrete - the problem is whether the concrete can meet the requirements.

Cement is marked, is there any concrete?

Can this thing that Da Ming has made now meet the demand? After being washed by the Yellow River for a few years, will this thing rot?

If you have to rebuild every few years, how high will the cost be? The bridge is easy to build, what should I do if the railway is rerouted?

These messy questions made Emperor Chongzhen a little big.

Without solving this problem, it is simply impossible to build a bridge across the Yellow River, only to build a pontoon bridge - a pontoon bridge is useful for cars and pedestrians, and it is useful for the railway? Can it carry it?

After thinking about it for a long time, Emperor Chongzhen didn't come up with any reliable solution, so he could only squint his eyes and say: "I remember seeing a saying in a book, saying that wooden bones support mud walls, and even poor people build houses, and they will mix wheat straw or other things into the mud to make them skeletons.

If you replace mud with cement, and wheat straw with a long steel skeleton and use it as a bridge pier, I don't know how? ”

When Wen Tiren and the others heard this, they were immediately dumbfounded.

We all know the saying that the wooden bone supports the mud wall, and the saying that the mud is mixed with wheat straw has also been heard or seen, but the practice of using cement and steel can work?

Not to mention that Wen Tiren and others were confused, Emperor Chongzhen himself had no confidence in his heart - after he "invented" Chongzhen cement, he threw this thing to the Royal Academy and never took care of it again, who knows if they have made improvements?

If so, to what extent? Is there that kind of high-grade bullish cement appeared?

If it really doesn't work, can you use pure steel piers? It's just a waste of steel.

But how many years can steel last? Compared with Daming concrete, which is more durable?

Before Emperor Chongzhen could figure out these messy things, there was a burst of frustration from the body of the train, and Cui Yongan said: "Your Majesty, you are already about to enter the Yongding Gate of the capital, and now it is caused by the deceleration of the front of the locomotive." ”