Leaving the somewhat upsetting village, Li Zhi walked in the countryside of Henan with his generals. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

There is no accurate data on the population of the Ming Dynasty in the Chongzhen Dynasty. According to official household registration statistics, there are only more than 60 million people in Daming. However, this type of household registration is highly inaccurate, because the local gentry hid the population in large numbers in order to help the tenants avoid forced labor. The actual population of the Ming Dynasty was much higher than 60 million.

According to the estimate of Hong Chengchou, deputy chief of staff of the General Staff, the actual population of Daming is about 120 million. Li Zhi believed in Hong Chengchou's statistics, because Li Zhi happened to see the research of some historians in his later life, including Gao Wangling, Ge Jianxiong, Cao Shuji and other Ming history experts, all of whom deduced that the population of the late Ming Dynasty was more than 100 million.

Henan's population, which used to account for one-tenth of the country's population, is now less than one-twentieth.

The central and eastern parts of Henan are the North China Plain, which has been washed by large and small rivers for hundreds of millions of years.

Farmers in Henan have developed dry land on both sides of the river, but in other places far from water sources, most of them are uncultivated wilderness.

At this time, there were only more than 10 million people in Henan, but after several years of war, there are now only more than 4 million people left. In the later generations before Li Zhi's crossing, Henan's cultivated land area reached 120 million mu. According to the income of more than one stone per acre of land in Henan in the Ming Dynasty, 120 million mu of land was enough to feed 40 million people.

This shows the great potential of Henan's future agricultural development.

Li Zhi is confident that Henan will become a new granary.

Li Zhi walked to a barren land overgrown with weeds, held a whip and said, "Look at this wasteland, you only need to set up dozens of dragon tail trucks to carry water, and it is a fertile farmland. The experience of our 'service team' in the development of Northeast China can be extended to Henan, so that the non-governmental forces can participate in the large-scale development of agriculture. We can just sit on the ground and collect the rent. ”

"This matter allows the wealthy people of Tianjin to take the lead, and they can absorb Tianjin's private capital in the form of a joint-stock company and invest Tianjin's surplus resources in the fertile soil of Henan. The people of Henan Province organize 'service teams' on the spot to develop new fields nearby, without the need to build new houses and roads, and the cost of land reclamation will be effectively reduced. ”

Compared to the three eastern provinces, which have a cold climate and lack of water, Henan has more precipitation, more sunshine and higher wheat yields. The flat central and eastern parts of Henan Province can use a large number of new agricultural machinery for farming.

According to Li Zhi's experience in Northeast China, using agricultural machinery produced by various factories in Tianjin, a farmer can cultivate hundreds of acres of land. Traditionally, a farmer can only take care of twenty acres of land.

Industrial designers are not limited to industrial development. The development of industry will also promote agricultural production. Li Zhi's industrial manufacturing capacity has fed back agriculture through agricultural machinery and water conservancy machinery, making the great development of agriculture possible.

The development of steamships has made it feasible to dig guano as a natural compound fertilizer from islands across thousands of miles, which has further increased the yield of farmland and further deepened the connotation of industrial farming.

The development of industrial farming will cause farmers' incomes to skyrocket. This has been demonstrated by the new farms in the three northeastern provinces.

Li Xing said with a smile: "Only under the supervision of the court of the eldest brother will the agricultural reclamation of the people be protected by law." If it is under the rule of the gentry or thieves, the people who have worked hard to cultivate the new fields will be remembered by Haoqiang or other scoundrels before the harvest time, and it will definitely be a chicken and an egg. Therefore, there are thousands of miles of fertile fields, but there are few fields that can be cultivated well. ”

"In the future, under the rule of the eldest brother, the people of Henan can rest assured that they can fertilize the fields and reclaim new land with confidence, and their living standards will rise sharply. I am afraid that in a few years, it will be able to reach the current level of Shandong. ”

Zheng Kaicheng thought for a while and said: "When I came to Henan to organize a service team to reclaim wasteland, I really need the strong support of the court. The clan power in the countryside of the Central Plains was very strong, and only by relying on the strong deterrence of the courts and the police could an outsider go to the rural areas of Henan to organize the peasants, order and efficiency within the service team could be guaranteed. ”

Li Zhi nodded and said: "In order to cooperate with the main body of Henan's agricultural development, the 'service team', our court should refine the laws on industrial farming, and refine the rights and obligations between the employers and employees of the service team, so as to ensure that the service team can truly drive the rural areas of Henan." ”

Zheng Kaicheng looked at the wasteland in front of him and said, "Lord Shengming! Although the land looted by the people was confiscated, the people will be dissatisfied for the time being. However, with the great development of agriculture, I believe that the people of Henan, who are gradually getting richer, will understand what rules are and understand the benefits of rules in the whole society. ”

Li Xing laughed and said: "Now the monthly salary of the service team in the three northeastern provinces has risen to three or five yuan. When the time comes, when the people of Henan get three or two months of money a month, and two people can support four or five children, they will no longer miss King Chuang. ”

Li Laosi said in a deep voice: "I'm afraid that the people of Henan will not be able to figure out this problem in a short time, and maybe there will be a lot of problems in the process of policy implementation." In some places where the people are strong, it is also possible that the policy of confiscating dirty land will provoke a popular uprising. ”

Li Zhi nodded and said, "Li Laosi's worry is very reasonable. ”

"So we have to mobilize 50,000 troops to come to Henan to suppress the crumbs. In this first year, before the courts and police could be fully established, Henan was under military control. No matter how much the people miss the thieves who are exempt from the land and the people who dare to challenge the law of the widows, they will all be shot. ”

Zheng Kaicheng patted his ass and said: "The prince is really heroic! Perform thunder tricks to show the bodhisattva's heart even more! ”

Li Zhi smiled, turned around and found Chen Sanduo, the minister of the "Ministry of Railways" behind the crowd, and asked, "Minister Chen, how is the railway planning on the South Road?" ”

The thin Chen Sanduo pushed the myopic glasses on his nose, took a scroll from the staff behind him, and dismounted and ran over.

Today, Li Zhi's glass factory not only produces reading glasses, but also myopic eyes. Although there were not as many myopia in this era as in later generations, with the popularization of Li Zhi's compulsory education and secondary education, there were more readers, and myopia also appeared a lot. Therefore, myopia glasses are now also quite popular and have become a profitable product.

Chen Sanduo ran to Li Zhi and opened the scroll, which contained a railway planning map.

"Look, Lord Wang, the South Road Railway we planned starts from Tianjin and goes directly to Jinan. After arriving in Jinan, the road is divided into two, one leads to the Rizhao Port of Qingzhou Prefecture, and the other goes south into Henan and arrives in Kaifeng. The railway to Kaifeng is divided into two routes, one goes west to Tongguan, and the other goes south to Xinyang in the south of Henan. ”

"In this way, Tianjin's industrial products can be transported south quickly by rail to Henan. The grain and minerals produced in Henan can also be transported to Rizhao, Shandong Province for loading on ships or transported to Tianjin for wholesale trading. ”

"If the prince wants to use troops against Shaanxi or Nanzhili, relying on this railway, he can transport Tianjin's army to the front line in a few days."

Li Zhi nodded and said, "Okay, let the steel town expand, and the construction of this railway will start immediately!" ”