Chapter 66 Zhu Youxiao's Immigration Plan
With the northward migration of Chahar Lingdan Khan and the westward movement of Bushitu Taiji, the vast northwestern region of the Ming Dynasty was basically free of the threat of war. Moreover, with the migration of these tribes, a large blank area is left and a large number of people need to be replenished, and Zhu Youxiao has long planned for this problem.
The Guanzhong Plain is one of the birthplaces of ancient Chinese civilization, where the land was developed relatively early, and due to the concentration of population, it has caused serious over-farming and soil erosion. Zhu Youxiao put the issue of environmental protection on both sides of the Jing River and Wei River on the agenda, and the idiom "Jing and Wei are distinct" refers to the fact that the Jing River and the Wei River are clear and turbid, but in fact, in the rainy season, the two rivers are very large sand basins. Zhu Youxiao was ready to move half of the inhabitants from the two river basins to the original Chahar area, where the planting method of half-farming and half-storing cattle and sheep was practiced, extensive pastoral cultivation was prohibited, and the method of grassland recuperation was carried out in turns, and the planting of pasture grass was encouraged, and the burning of grassland and forests were forbidden, so as to leave a good living environment for future generations.
Half of the residents migrated from Henan and Shandong into the vast Northeast Plain, where the black soil is extremely fertile, as long as the indiscriminate cultivation and grazing are moderately controlled, it is relatively easy to protect the environment there, because the Northeast in later generations is China's big granary, through immigration can completely solve the problem of displaced people in Henan and Shandong, alleviate the man-made disasters caused by natural disasters here, and avoid turmoil.
Zhu Youxiao's series of ideas require huge financial support, and also need people with strong ability to actually operate. The difficulty of leaving the homeland is a major drawback of the farming nation, and the thirst for land is also the greatest expectation of the farming nation, and Zhu Youxiao hopes to find the best balance between these two views. When the desire for land of the farming people is greater than the willingness to be nostalgic for the homeland, it is when the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. People tend to migrate. Zhu Youxiao must give benefits to the common people, so that the common people themselves are willing to migrate to these so-called barren lands, which is why the imperial court needs to formulate a good immigration policy.
Referring to the pros and cons of the great development of the western United States, that is, the pros and cons of the great immigration, Zhu Youxiao gave the policy of tax exemption, all residents who are willing to migrate to these places are exempt from paying all taxes within the prescribed five years, and the Ming Royal Trading Company is responsible for purchasing the cattle and sheep raised by each family, and all the immigration sites must establish an accurate immigrant population, ensure that the land is not cultivated beyond the needs of life, breed cattle and sheep that can accumulate a certain amount of property, do not allow free-range cattle and sheep, prohibit indiscriminate felling, and maintain a good natural environment.
The Ming Dynasty royal traders provided a certain amount of funds for the vast number of immigrants, a good trade environment, and also provided the Ming Dynasty with losses caused by tax exemption, and the cattle and sheep traded were processed into a variety of food by the merchants, which were sold to all parts of the country by the merchants, and also provided the imperial court with much higher taxes than agriculture. In fact, these are based on the basis of circulation, only when people flow and materials flow, profits can be generated, and the whole society will have vitality.
The official in charge of the migration of the population, Zhu Youxiao chose Yuan Yingtai in Shaanxi, Gansu and Shanxi, and Yuan Yingtai was originally the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu. In history, he was put to Liaodong as a governor, but he lost his land and committed suicide, in the current time, Zhu Youxiao made full use of his expertise and let him take charge of the civil affairs of the party, which made Yuan Yingtai like a fish in water, because Yuan Yingtai was originally good at civil issues. With new crops as the basic basis for grain, Yuan Yingtai vigorously promoted the production of new crops in Shaanxi and Gansu to ensure that the peasants had a sufficient supply of grain, and the displaced people would naturally not be produced. The relocation of uninhabitable mountain and thin land dwellers, compensating them with a certain amount of food, allowing them to move to a place where the land is fertile, and not having to pay taxes, makes the common people leave their homeland very voluntarily.
Shandong's immigration is in charge of Wen Zhenmeng, combined with the improvement of Shandong's new bureaucratic system, in this year's people's cohesion is extraordinary, the prestige of the government is also increasing day by day, the peasants believe in all the policies of the government, not to mention that because Shandong is a province with a large population, the land is relatively tight, and people's desire for land is very strong. Gradually detached from the traditional concept of the homeland, it made great strides towards the vast Northeast region.
The immigrants in Henan made Zhu Youxiao hurt his brain, the land in Henan was already very tight, there were many people and little land, and there were many fiefs of King Fu, so there were more farmers who lost their land. Therefore, when the imperial court's immigration policy came out, it caused a vigorous wave of immigration, a large number of displaced people flocked to the official road to Liaodong, so that the price of grain near the official road from Henan to Liaodong rose, in order not to cause a popular uprising, Zhu Youxiao had to let King Fu be responsible for supplying the food supply of immigrants in Henan, and the Ming Royal Trading Company was responsible for the food supply of the later section.
Due to the number of immigrants, the population of Henan has decreased by almost one-third, the labor force of King Fu is not enough, in order to retain the tenants, King Fu had to reduce the rent to one and a half, but now there is an advanced ox plough for cultivated land, which is the double sliding plough of later generations, plus King Fu purchased a lot of cattle and horses, which barely kept the cultivated land from being abandoned. King Fu was so affected by this, and those other landlords were even more miserable, so they had to reduce the rent. In this way, the problem of displaced people in Shandong and Henan has basically been solved, the peasants have something to eat, and the displaced people have land, and they are no longer displaced people.
Through this great migration movement, Zhu Youxiao completely changed the inertia of the southward flow of population in China's history, and made the quality of the population in the north and south develop in a balanced manner. Moreover, due to the migration of a large number of people to the Liaodong region, the population of Liaodong increased greatly, so that Zhu Youxiao could reserve a sufficient population base for the later march into the broader Siberian region, and also avoided the history of a very small number of Russian merchants and soldiers who could expel a large number of Chinese border people and occupy these places. In the future, once entering the Siberian region, Zhu Youxiao will let the Ming royal traders move forward with the army, and the others, whether they are Jin merchants or Hui merchants, will be encouraged, and every time they occupy a fortress, they will build a small city, leaving a certain number of soldiers to guard it, and will establish a mobile cavalry group to prevent the invasion of other nationalities.
Of course, this migration movement was not completed in a very short period of time, but lasted for nearly five years, and it was only when the supply and demand of land in Shandong and Henan basically reached a balance that the migration wave basically ended. But the consequences of this migration movement have had a great impact on people's traditional thinking, and people no longer feel that their homeland is inseparable, and that "the tree is dead." The first is that the "people move to live" began to penetrate into the hearts of the people, which provided a good sense for the Ming Dynasty to expand its territory and do business and trade in the world, and the traditional farming nation also had the concept of going out.