What to do?

For the people of the Ming Dynasty in 1669, of course they did not know, and they could not understand the inner sorrow of Zhu Mingzhong.

On the one hand, as an emperor, he knew the significance of population to the Ming Dynasty, and knew that in this era of relying on a 10% survival rate to open up colonies, the number of population determined the future frontier of China. As long as the population is large enough, the "America" of the future will be made up of Chinese-speaking Chinese.

On the other hand, what kind of stimulus effect on population growth will be brought about by the abundance of food supply brought about by high-yielding potatoes? In another time and space, corn that can be planted on the hillside and pumpkins in the corners of the wall, coupled with the red book of "planting dozens of stones per acre, and winning the valley twenty times", are like a stimulant, injecting a stimulant into China's population growth.

In just 200 years, the population has grown from 65 million to 430 million. In a pre-industrial society, such a strong population growth is impressive, and on a global scale. It is said that this rate is comparable to the average annual population growth rate in Britain during the Industrial Revolution, and in Europe during the same period.

Such a population increase came quickly, decisively, and unostentatiously, and was therefore unnoticed for a long time, and although there were sporadic forward-looking warnings in the process, they at best achieved shocking or sensational rhetorical effects, and did not contribute to the facts. If it were not for the fact that the contradiction between population and land resources had not been brought to the fore and sharpened, eventually a serious imbalance would have affected almost everyone's livelihood and led to civil strife.

And this is exactly what Zhu Mingzhong is wary of, and it is also what he wants to avoid in every possible way, but it is also self-defeating, on the one hand, the country needs more people in the future, and on the other hand, too many people will bring a series of disasters.

Perhaps, in the future, the separation of overseas can take away half of the population, but 200 million people! For Da Ming, it is still an astronomical number.

“…… With the rapid growth of population and the inadequacy of arable land, "meat" can be transformed into "vegetarian", and "vegetarian" can be reduced to "coarse food", so there seems to be no reason to prevent the transition from "coarse food" to "no food". ”

In the face of Zhu Daxian, Zhu Mingzhong's tone seemed a little heavy, the kind of barely maintaining food and clothing will lead to a rapid decline in the physical fitness of the Chinese people, the most obvious is the height, the eighteen or nineteen years of enslavement of the Manchu Qing Dynasty successfully reduced the Ming people who were "slightly taller than Europeans" to the same level as Europeans.

In order to allow the physical fitness of the Ming people to recover as soon as possible, as early as eight years ago, Zhu Mingzhong introduced 55 Holstein cows from Batavia through Dutch businessmen, and crossed them with local cattle to improve the milk yield of local cattle.

Now, the drinking of milk has become a habit for many people in the Ming Dynasty, and this habit was originally from Zhu Mingzhong himself, officials and then to the bereaved family's school, with the increase in the number of dairy cows and the increase in milk production, and finally spread to the people. Although until now, the consumption of milk has been confined to wealthy families in large and medium-sized cities, the habit of drinking milk is rapidly developing with the development of dairy farming, and this is entirely due to the fact that the abundant land has made the people generally rich and willing to improve their lives.

However, this change is bound to change with the increasing population, and in order to increase the total grain production by another step, people have repeatedly reduced the sown area of rice and wheat, which are known as the "nobles of the valley", and freed up land for the cultivation of sweet potatoes. With limited land and limited productivity, if there is an urgent need for more food, more crops with higher yields per unit can only be grown. As time went slowly, the sweet potato, boiled or steamed to the point of being eaten by the increasingly cold sunlight, was increasingly served to the less and less dignified table by the Chinese peasants, and became their main ration.

At that time, the so-called milk will only become a memory or a food for the rich, and it will be just a luxury for most people, just like meat in another time and space, where people don't know the taste of meat all year round.

"When the people are not allowed to eat, Pingchen, what will happen to you? Riots, uprisings, wars, and then turmoil in the world...... That's the inevitable ......"

was frightened by His Majesty's words, and even interrupted His Majesty's words regardless of decency, and then said at a long time.

"Your Majesty, isn't it precisely to share the population pressure in the country that you can move overseas and divide the Zhuxia? After the Nanyang seal is completed, it can be sealed to Amalia, as well as Tianzhu, and Africa, the world is so vast, are the people willing to starve in the countryside? Moreover, now that the inheritance of the eldest son is a constraint, since the land cannot be divided again, and the people will not be able to eat, those second sons, if they want to be fed, must leave their native land, and go abroad, to Zhuxia, and go there to obtain their land......"

"What if someone doesn't want to go? What if they get to the city? ”

Zhu Mingzhong asked with a smile.

"The Ming Dynasty has its own law, the powerful do not work and cannot eat, and the beggar flows! If they don't go, they have to go! ”

Zhu Daxian, who was frightened by His Majesty's assumptions, even said viciously in the end.

"Whether you want to go or not, you can't help them!"

That's right!

Even if they don't want to go, they have to drive them over, overseas, and Zhuxia, which is for their good! Of course, it is also for the sake of the Ming Dynasty, if there were no homeless people back then, and those homeless people did not become homeless gangsters, how could hundreds of millions of people be killed later?

Even in private, at this moment, Zhu Daxian had an idea - to find a way to speed up overseas immigration!

Only in this way can we solve the problem at the root!

It was at this time that Zhu Daxian suddenly realized the problem. He looked up at His Majesty and said.

"Your Majesty, you are alarmist!"

Originally, Zhu Daxian was indeed frightened, because he had experienced war and human suffering, and it was precisely because of this that he was afraid, afraid that his children and grandchildren would suffer the same calamity.

"Oh?"

The corners of his lips raised slightly, and Zhu Mingzhong asked rhetorically.

"Why do you say that?"

"Your Majesty, to this day, the Nanyang countries have moved away no less than 500,000 households, and their descendants will naturally grow in Zhuxia, not the Ming Dynasty, in the next two hundred years, there will be more than millions of people who move to Zhuxia, in the eyes of the ministers, two hundred years later, my Ming Dynasty is at most similar to the Wanli period, and how can His Majesty just say "no food", besides, today's Northeast also immigrated millions, today's Ming land is vast, far more than yesterday, yesterday's people can still eat, why can't tomorrow? ”

Faced with Zhu Daxian's rhetorical question, Zhu Mingzhong asked.

"And what about four hundred years from now?"

After 400 years, the grain output will increase tenfold, of course, Zhu Mingzhong will not say these words.

"Uh...... This ......"

"How can the population continue to grow like this after 400 years?"

Of course not, housing prices are the best contraceptives, and urbanization is also the best contraceptives. Of course, it should be controlled within reasonable limits.

"This ...... This...... I don't know! ”

Zhu Daxian once again waved his hand.

"People have no long-term concerns, but they must have near-term worries, so I think that we must destroy the self-sufficiency of the countryside, otherwise, we can't solve the problem fundamentally!"

Looking at Zhu Daxian, Zhu Mingzhong continued to explain his thoughts.

"Just as the spinning industry has hit the country spinning production hard, and with the sharp decline in the production of native yarn, the number of yarn mills is increasing, and the number of workers in the yarn mills must also increase, if the weaving industry also enters the factories or workshops from thousands of households, then these factories are bound to absorb hundreds of thousands of workers, and these workers, they settle near the factories, they need to live, they need to live, all their living materials, they need to buy, which will further stimulate the development of industry and commerce, whether it is rice merchants, vegetable sellers, oil sellers and cloth shops, These industries need to be run by people, they consume each other, enough to feed each other, these factories and shops will absorb millions of idle laborers, the cities are expanding, the population is increasing, they will not squeeze out the limited land resources, so that the country will have long-term peace and stability. ”

It is inevitable and the only way for the country to develop by driving urbanization to absorb the surplus labor in the countryside through industrialization, and then absorbing the surplus labor in the city through consumption and retail, but in this era, people cannot understand its importance.

After all, historically, since the 18th century, the reason why European cities have often rioted is because there are too many surplus people, and the factories cannot absorb enough labor, which is also one of the reasons for the outbreak of revolution on the European continent.

A two-pronged approach is the only way to solve the problem at its root.

It's just that Zhu Daxian can't understand this point of view that seems to be very simple in the 21st century, and he was puzzled, frowning and asking.

"The minister is stupid, I don't know what your majesty is planning?"

To put it bluntly, not because of stupidity, but because he simply does not know, does not know what His Majesty has planned, or how to "destroy" the self-sufficiency of the people.

"Did Pingchen read the newspaper?"

Seeing that Zhu Daxian was so "modest", Zhu Mingzhong asked with a smile, the newspaper is now a channel for him to understand the outside world, not only a channel not to be deceived by officials, but also a channel to understand social changes, and it is also in the newspaper that Zhu Mingzhong saw the solution to the problem.

"I don't know what newspaper Your Majesty is referring to?"

Zhu Daxian looked at His Majesty puzzled, what does Your Majesty mean?

Is there any big news in the newspapers that can't be found?