Twenty years, one generation.

One generation is enough time to change many traditions.

While the people from Egypt were lamenting that someone would leave the Celestial Empire, thousands of immigrants in Wusongkou were leaving the "immigration hotel" and were embarking on immigration ships to various places, which would send them to Zhuxia, North America, South Africa and other colonies, where they would become colonists of the colonies and people of Zhuxia, and start their new lives there.

Compared with the first generation of immigrants who were exiled twenty years ago, the vast majority of people now take the initiative to leave Daming, even if they are a little reluctant, but under the idea of "trees die, people live", millions of people leave Daming every year and go overseas.

"Fifty six hundred eighty-eight thousand four hundred thirty-one!"

Standing on the Wusong Fort, staring at the migrant ships that were moving away at the mouth of the river, Zhu Mingzhong couldn't help but say this number, which is the number of immigrants who left Daming in the first half of this year.

According to this figure, there will be millions of immigrants leaving Daming this year, and in 20 years, the number of overseas immigrants in Daming has exceeded one million for the first time!

In the 17th century, it was a miracle!

And the reason why this miracle can occur is because in the past 20 years, the number of merchant ships in the Ming Dynasty has increased from the initial thousands to more than 30,000 now.

From the South China Sea to the Tianzhu Ocean, to the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean is full of Ming merchant ships. While bringing the goods of these merchant ships to the world, they also brought a large number of immigrants to the colonies and Zhuxia.

The Ming Dynasty is moving towards the ocean little by little, and the people in it are moving from the mainland to the sea. Now there is no force to stop them from going to the sea, and the yearning for a better life makes people take the initiative to throw themselves into the sea, instead of being passive and even full of sadness as in the past.

There are many times when change begins with a change in mindset.

Seeing His Majesty staring at the sea, Yan Fangwei said softly on the side.

"Your Majesty, if nothing else, the number of immigrants overseas this year will exceed the one million mark! For Daming, this is not a fortunate thing! ”

Yan Fangwei, as a Chinese book practitioner, although he is the queen of the Yuan like Gu Yuan, his father Yan Ermei died of illness a few years ago, but despite this, the emperor spoke highly of him, and even said that "a sentence" death will be a terrible ghost, and life and being a stubborn person "is enough to show his loyalty". Perhaps because of this, he was given the title of "Wenzhong" behind him.

As a loyal minister, Yan Fangwei is also quite taken care of by the emperor, as a Chinese book practitioner, he is very likely to be a book in a few years, and from then on squeezed into the court ministers, just like Gu Cheng and others, in the Xingqian Dynasty, half of the books are Chinese book pedestrians and other fortunate ministers.

In this regard, some Shilin called it "promoting cadres and maladministration", but this could not change the emperor's practice of appointing fortunate ministers as cabinet ministers, and then tying up the imperial court. The Chinese book pedestrians who "run errands" for the emperor are often the most important source of Xingchen.

But as a Chinese book practitioner, although he is the emperor's "side", he must also show his talent, and he can't be a cabinet minister only by virtue of "emperor luck".

At this time, Yan Fangwei's sentence of "it is by no means a fortunate thing" is undoubtedly denying the national policy since the Xingqian period. It is the "people around him" like him who are so bold.

"Oh? Why is that? ”

"Your Majesty, the dynasty takes overseas immigration as the "national policy", and the root cause is nothing more than to avoid the appearance of displaced people, and although there are many reasons for the emergence of displaced people, in general, it is nothing more than land annexation, famine, famine, and military disaster. ”

Standing behind His Majesty, Yan Fangwei said in an orderly manner.

"Therefore, since the founding of the Yuan Dynasty, our dynasty has practiced overseas feudalism, encouraged immigration, and driven the displaced people to migrate overseas, which can prevent the displaced people from harming the Central Plains, and second, can make the people have no worries about famine, so every time there is a disaster, the people have migrated in large numbers, so since Your Majesty ascended to the pole, although there have been disasters and famines in various places, they have not heard the worries of the displaced people, let alone the ...... of famine."

It is true that the Xingqian Dynasty was a peaceful and prosperous era, but in fact, natural disasters have never been far away from the Ming Dynasty, and China has been a country with frequent natural disasters since ancient times. "Thousands of miles of red land" and "a piece of ocean" are endless in history books. The Xingqian Dynasty, which was in the Xiaoice River period, had natural disasters every year.

The lesson of Chongzhen's death from the exile made the government and the opposition attach great importance to it, and while implementing a series of related disaster relief measures, immigration has become the most effective method.

From the first year of Xingqian to the present, whether it is the northeast, the south seas and overseas colonies, in the past 20 years, it has attracted tens of millions of immigrants. In this era of backward industrial level, while urban industry and commerce cannot absorb enough labor, the migration of immigrants is extremely beneficial to the long-term peace and stability of the Ming Dynasty.

It is precisely because of the benefits of immigration that the government and the opposition have long reached a consensus on the issue of immigration. From "immigrating to the real side" to "immigrating overseas", it has always been supported by people of insight in the government and the opposition. But now Yan Fangwei has a completely different view on this.

"In that case, then why is it said that the increase in immigration to the Ming Dynasty is not a fortunate thing?"

"Your Majesty, at present, the population of Daming is only more than 11,000,000, and the new population is only two or three million people every year, and twenty years ago, the annual birth population was only more than 1 million, and one million people moved overseas every year.

Zhu Mingzhong's brows locked, and it seemed that Yan Fangwei's words also made some sense.

Immigration can indeed alleviate the pressure on the population in the country, but if there are too many immigrants, it will also lead to a shortage of people in the country. In the 21st century, China was in a stage of rapid decline in the demographic dividend, so Zhu Mingzhong has always been sensitive to population growth.

"The population growth rate of Daming is still quite high, if I remember correctly, it should be more than 3%."

Whether it is the abolition of the poll tax in the "Shengshi Ziding" or the improvement of medical conditions, it has directly led to a rapid increase in population, and even hundreds of thousands of maids from overseas flow into the Ming Dynasty every year, which has also injected new impetus into the population increase.

But even so, in Zhu Mingzhong's opinion. Population growth in the Ming Dynasty is still too slow. The daimyo also needed more human resources.

After all, in this era, population is the most important resource, which is directly related to whether the Ming can expand its civilization to the greatest extent in this world.

"The rapid growth of immigration has been matched by an acceleration in population growth, and I think, at least for the time being, our population growth is proportional to the increase in immigration."

After repeatedly calculating a few numbers in his heart, Zhu Mingzhong continued.

"Now the annual population is about 3.5 million, the number of immigrants is million, and then the number of people who die of natural causes every year, I estimate that the annual population increase of the Ming Dynasty is about 1 million, that is, the absolute growth level of about 1%, well, at this level, there is nothing wrong with encouraging childbearing."

Perhaps because he witnessed the disaster brought about by the decline of the Chinese population in the 21st century, Zhu Mingzhong has always advocated encouraging childbearing, and even further consolidated the idea of having more children and more blessings through the "holy temple" to encourage the people to have children.

Of course, the premise of encouraging fertility is because the current population of the Ming Dynasty is too small, and in this era of great geographical discoveries, manpower is the fundamental driving force for the expansion of the empire, and there are not enough human resources for immigration, even if the Ming Dynasty discovers the world, it is just to make wedding dresses for other people.

"But Your Majesty, we must see that immigration is increasing, last year there were 847,630 people emigrating overseas, and this year immigration exceeded one million, the growth rate of immigration exceeded 15%, if this number increases, five years later, immigration will break through the 2 million mark, at that time, Daming will fall into the situation of more immigrants and fewer local people."

Is this alarmist?

Yan Fangwei's warning made Zhu Mingzhong's brows furrow, and he did not immediately refute it, but asked.

"Mingzhi, in your opinion, why is this happening?"

"Your Majesty, the increasing number of overseas immigrants, the reason is because of the inheritance of the eldest son of the Ming Dynasty, even if the common people have several sons, but in addition to the eldest son, the other sons have no inheritance rights, so they can only leave their hometowns when they become adults, although a large number of people are pouring into the city, and the city can not provide enough jobs, the people have to go overseas in order to make a living! This is the root cause of the increase in overseas migration. ”

This is also the reason for the promotion of primogeniture.

Zhu Mingzhong did not refute this, and the primogeniture almost fundamentally disintegrated traditional Chinese society, causing the clan power in the countryside to suffer an unprecedented blow. But what does it really do? I am afraid that it has also prompted the active migration of the population.

In this regard, the primogeniture is beneficial to the Ming Dynasty, but ...... Frowning, Zhu Mingzhong motioned for Yan Fangwei to continue.

"Your Majesty, the right of primogeniture may have stimulated the people to move overseas and achieved the effect of enriching the population of Zhuxia overseas, but moving overseas can not only obtain land and property, but more and more second sons are willing to drag their families overseas instead of buying real estate at home. There is only one eldest son, but there are several second sons, and over time, the number of people leaving the country will only increase, and the local population will continue to decrease, so that the situation of weak branches and strong branches will inevitably appear in the Ming Dynasty. ”

When Yan Fangwei explained, Zhu Mingzhong just stood silently on the fort, staring at the sea, and found for the first time that overseas immigrants did not seem to be as beautiful as he imagined.

"The cadres are weak and the branches are strong" may be a bit alarmist, but the decline of the local population is indeed not a good thing, especially the implementation of the Northwest Colonization and other undertakings, under the premise that a large number of people are needed, the rapid increase in overseas immigration is undoubtedly contrary to the country's development needs.

"Therefore, the minister thinks that although overseas immigration is a national policy, but there must be a degree, and including the new summer and North America, the absorption of immigrants is also limited, the minister thinks that the number of overseas immigrants every year, keep at one million people, more, hurt the vitality of the Ming itself, less, it will lead to the lack of people in Zhuxia, and the number of millions, no more, no less, first, can make the Ming Dynasty have no worries about the displaced people, and the population can grow in an orderly manner, second, it will not bring pressure to Zhuxia, after all, there are many people in Nanyang, The number of Han and Tu is acceptable, and Xinxia and North America are vast and sparsely populated, and the local people are scarce, so they should be mainly immigrants, so the minister thought that the imperial court should reduce the immigration subsidies to the Nanyang Zhuxia and increase the immigration subsidies to the New Xia and North America, so as to ensure that the immigrants move to the two places......"

Everything in the world has a degree, everything can not be biased, and this immigration to overseas cannot be blindly forced, and some balance must be maintained. And Yan Fangwei's suggestion does have merit, and Zhu Mingzhong, who is already inclined to agree with him in his heart, said with a smile.

"Mingzhi, your suggestion is also old, but if you do this, I'm afraid that Zhuxia and the people will not be satisfied!"

"Your Majesty, it doesn't matter if they're satisfied!"

Yan Fangwei said directly.

"The important thing is that this is beneficial to my Ming Dynasty, so it is enough, after all, this silver is the silver of the Ming Dynasty, if the silver is spent, but it is not conducive to the Ming Dynasty, this loss is a loss, it is absolutely impossible to do!"

Nodding slightly, it is true, the imperial court spends millions of taels of silver every year to support immigrants, and it is true that it cannot lose money and make money. Zhu Mingzhong said.

"Well, you can draw up a formation and go back to the cabinet to discuss it."