The sky is clear, the sea breeze is blowing, and on the wide sea, I finally feel the coolness of autumn.

Zhang Bin sat at the top of the cabin of the Zhenyuan cruiser, looking at the endless sea, frowning and pondering.

He was thinking about natural disasters, or how to save ordinary people in natural disasters.

There is no unified statement about how many people were lost in this natural disaster at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and he has seen many relevant descriptions, and the data are not the same.

Some indicate that the population was 160 million at the end of the year, and there were about 80 million left at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty;

Some indicate that the population was about 100 million at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and there were about 14 million left at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty;

Some indicate that the population was close to 200 million at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and there were more than 100 million left at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty;

These figures are all estimates, and there is no accurate number, but the loss of population is surprisingly close, about 80 million!

Why is the loss of population so strikingly consistent?

Because there are a lot of data on losses that can be examined, it is impossible to estimate the specific data on how many people were before the natural disasters at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and there is no specific data on how many people were after the war in the early Qing Dynasty, but many population losses can be verified.

For example, in Liaodong, there are more than 3 million data during the Wanli period, and according to statistics in the early Qing Dynasty, there are less than one million left.

For example, in Shaanxi, there were more than 6 million in the early years of the Apocalypse, and in the early Qing Dynasty, there were also less than one million.

For example, in Sichuan, the data of Chongzhen in the early years also had more than 6 million, and in the early Qing Dynasty, it was less than 500,000!

Such a huge population loss, the main reason is definitely not the war, a war loss of hundreds of thousands, enough to go down in history, the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty hundreds of thousands of casualties of hundreds of thousands of people in the war is almost none, even if it is a few slaughters after the mite Qing entered the customs, at most a time is hundreds of thousands, there are no millions.

But what is the reason why so many people have disappeared so silently?

Combined with the analysis of various factors, Zhang Bin came to a conclusion, many people are starving to death, the terrible drought has led to a sharp drop in grain production, coupled with years of war, the five northwest provinces, more than ten years, basically no food output, tens of millions of ordinary people eat!

The food problem is the main reason for the sharp decline in the population.

It doesn't matter if you don't have food for a day, at most you will have a stomachache when you are hungry;

You can live without food for a month, and you can eat something else;

Even, if you don't have food for a year, you can come up with various ways;

If you haven't eaten for more than ten years, it's no wonder if you don't starve to death!

To be honest, Zhang Bin didn't worry much about the food problem before, because he sat on the two provinces of Fuguang and Dongfan, as well as Dongfan and Hainan for development, and these places were not greatly affected by the natural disaster, and there was no problem at all to feed more than 100,000 troops.

However, now considering the tens of millions of ordinary people, he immediately realized that the current harvest was a drop in the bucket.

How much food can he raise now?

One million stones, two million stones, or even five million stones is not much of a problem, if it is launched ruthlessly, it is possible to have 10 million stones, so much grain and grass, 100,000 or even 200,000 troops naturally do not have to worry about eating and drinking, but once it is divided into tens of millions of ordinary people, it will not be able to last for a month!

He led the fleet to Guangdong to transport grain, and the number of people affected in the Fujian prefectures has been counted, about 60,000 households, about 300,000 people, that is to say, he has to raise 300,000 stone of grain.

This bit of grain is naturally not a problem for him, Nanhaiwei has already begun to harvest grain, two million acres of land, and there is definitely no problem in producing three or four hundred thousand stone of grain.

However, now considering the tens of millions of ordinary people, we cannot be satisfied with the status quo and must go all out to develop food production!

Of course, it is impossible to save all the hungry people with the grain produced by the two provinces, so we can only do our best and produce as much as we can.

At this time, Guangzhou Port, the Tianzi Pier was already in sight, Zhang Bin cleaned up his mood, slowly got up, and walked down.

The officials of Guangdong had already received the news that the governor was coming in advance, but this time the scene was not as grand as last time, because Zhang Bin gave an order, and Cai Shanji, the political envoy of Zuo Bu, could come to greet him, and the other officials should perform their duties and should not make a big fuss.

Cai Shanji didn't make a big fuss, so he brought a few entourages to greet him at the pier, and he didn't put on any big scene.

Zhang Bin was very satisfied with this, and after the two sides met, he immediately asked cordially: "Boda, are you still used to it here, it's surprisingly hot here." ”

Cai Shanji smiled and said: "It's okay, it's okay, it's good to get used to it, I can't stand it when I live in the tall and spacious political envoy Si Yamen, and the people who live in low bungalows can't stand it even more." ”

Zhang Bin nodded and said, "Well, it's good to get used to it, what kind of disaster can be reported by the provincial governments in Guangdong?" ”

Cai Shanji shook his head and said: "No, no, thanks to the blessing of adults, Guangdong has a smooth wind and rain this year." ”

When Zhang Bin heard this, he shook his head and said with a wry smile: "Boda, when did you also learn this sycophant kung fu, the wind and rain have nothing to do with me, no, Fujian has suffered a drought this year." ”

Cai Shanji immediately asked: "Is it serious? ”

Zhang Bin was relieved: "It's not serious, the river has not been cut off, and there are not many people affected by the disaster, so I can just transfer a batch of grain." ”

Cai Shanji is still very concerned about Fujian, after all, he has served there for several years, and he is the official to the right political envoy, which is equivalent to the official of one of Fujian's parents.

Hearing that the drought was not very serious, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, but he was more concerned about the allocation of grain, and he saw that Zhang Bin was not tired, so he immediately proposed: "My lord, why don't we go to Nanhaiwei now?" ”

Zhang Bin was also anxious to go over to find out about the harvest, and immediately agreed: "Okay, are the horses ready?" ”

Cai Shanji nodded and said, "It's ready, it's in the open space outside." ”

When Zhang Bin heard this, he immediately beckoned, took a group of guards, and pulled Cai Shanji to the outside of the port, and soon, the sound of horses' hooves sounded outside the port, and a group of more than 100 horsemen went straight to Nanhaiwei.

Nanhaiwei is very different from before, the common people have all moved to the side near Guangzhou, and the side near Huizhou is a large farm that stretches for more than 100 miles, and even the original more than 100,000 acres of tuntian in Nanhaiwei have been incorporated into it.

Nanhaiwei Farm is bounded by the Dongjiang River in the south and directly connected to the mountains of Huizhou Mansion in the north, which is more than 20 miles wide and more than 100 miles long.

At this time, Nanhaiwei was not the original 5,000 households, and there were only more than 1,000 people in Tunwei, but 6,000 households, more than 6,000 people in Tunwei, and 6,000 households were evenly distributed along the Dongjiang River and along the northern mountainous edge.

There is no way, the people who work here are all pirates and bandits, although Zhang Bin later relocated all their families in order to make them feel at ease to work and reform here, but these people are used to it after all, if you don't look at it well, it is a dream to let them work hard.

Near noon, Zhang Bin and Cai Shanji and his entourage finally rushed to Nanhaiwei's nearest Qianhu station to Guangzhou, which was also the commander's station, and Nanhaiwei's commander Xie Zhengyang had already led a group of guards to wait at the gate of the city gate of Nanhai's left office.

Zhang Bin saw Xie Zhengyang from a distance, and immediately raised his hand to slow everyone down, and when he was still dozens of steps away from the city gate, he ordered everyone to turn over and dismount, and then threw the reins back, leading Cai Shanji and Xie Zhenggang to walk quickly towards Xie Zhengyang.

Xie Zhengyang hurriedly greeted him and laughed: "Shuangquan, Master Cai, Zhenggang, you can be regarded as here, if you don't come, the food will be cold." ”

Zhang Bin went up and took Xie Zhengyang's arm and said cordially: "Why is Uncle Sixth so polite, just wait at home, and run outside to greet him in such a big formation, it's not too troublesome." ”

Xie Zhengyang shook his head and smiled: "That's not good, you are now the Governor, you are no longer a little doll wearing open crotch pants and running around behind your little sixth aunt, I can't be lazy." ”

When Zhang Bin heard this, he was immediately embarrassed, knowing that I was the governor, and you still said that I was wearing open crotch pants!

Seeing this, Xie Zhenggang hurriedly put on a straight face, stepped forward and scolded: "Big brother, in front of so many people, why are you mentioning what happened when you were an adult?" ”

What is this, Zhang Bin hurriedly waved his hand and said, "Don't say it, don't say it, let's go, go eat first." ”

Xie Zhengyang finally reacted at this time, he touched his head in embarrassment, and then led everyone inside.

At this time, Nanhaiwei has already had a bumper harvest for one season, and the second season is also being harvested, that is called a wealth, there are only three guests in total, Xie Zhengyang gave the boss a table, there are all kinds of delicacies from the mountains and seas, and seasonal fresh vegetables.

Zhang Bin didn't care much about Xie Zhengyang's extravagance, because Xie Zhengyang himself was rich, and he had been a minority shareholder of Dongshengtang for more than ten years, and he was still in charge of the income of more than two million mu of land at this time, and it was normal to be extravagant, as long as he was not corrupt.

As soon as everyone sat down, he couldn't wait to ask, "Sixth Uncle, it's been peaceful here lately, right?" ”

When Xie Zhenggang heard this, he said majestically: "These bandits and pirates, at the beginning, they didn't farm honestly, they still made trouble, they wanted to run, they arrested hundreds of people, and after they were cut in public, they were finally honest, and no one ran away to make trouble in the past few months." ”

Zhang Bin nodded, he just asked about these trivial matters, and he didn't care about the specifics, and after a round of wine, he asked: "How is the harvest in the two seasons this year?" ”

Xie Zhenggang reported in detail: "The first season just started, the harvest was not very good, the total was less than three million stones, after repaying the grain borrowed from Dongshengtang, and paying taxes and salaries, the rest of the rations were just enough, this season was fine, almost about four million stones, in addition to about one million stone rations, there were about three million stones left." ”

Three million stones, excluding disaster relief and military rations, there are still more than one million stones left, which is already quite good, Zhang Bin nodded with satisfaction: "Sixth Uncle has worked hard, come, I will toast you." ”

After the two touched a cup, Xie Zhengyang immediately asked: "By the way, Shuangquan, where to put this grain after it is harvested, three million stones, how big a granary, I don't seem to have seen such a big granary here in Guangzhou Prefecture, probably because it is too hot and humid here, which is not suitable for storing grain." ”

Zhang Bin was stunned when he heard this, he really hadn't thought about this problem, it was not enough to produce food, it had to be preserved, if it was placed everywhere, it was estimated that it would be bad in less than a year, so what was the use of producing more!

He thought about it and immediately asked Cai Shanji: "Boda, is there a bigger granary in Guangdong?" ”

When Cai Shanji heard this, he shook his head awkwardly and said: "My lord, the weather here in Guangdong is too hot, the humidity is heavy, and the grain is easy to germinate and moldy, so it is rare to build large granaries, and granaries are generally built in dry and cold places in the north. ”

Zhang Bin was even more embarrassed, he also thought that he could use the past few years to accumulate tens of millions of stone grain, but as a result, he didn't even think about the place to store the grain.

Where is this place of grain built?

Guangdong is definitely not good, the north is even more impossible, only to build to Fujian, at this time, he thought of a place, that is, Jianning Mansion, the north of Jianning Mansion is high mountains and mountains, this time is even more dry and cold, there is no river, there is no way to grow crops, but it is just used to store grain.

It's a bit embarrassing to say this, he didn't even prepare a place to store grain, he just thought about producing food, embarrassing, really embarrassing, in order to avoid embarrassment, he simply diverted the topic and started chatting.

After everyone finished eating, Zhang Bin proposed to go and see the grain, and Xie Zhengyang immediately took them to the place where the grain was stored in the left of the South China Sea.

The grain storage place of Nanhai Zuowei is similar to the warehouse of the general county government, that is, a courtyard, there are warehouses on all sides, and the grain is put in the warehouse one by one, which can not be regarded as a place for storing grain, but only a place for transshipment.

Because most of the food in it will be transported away, and the rest will be rations, which will be eaten within a year.

At this time, Nanhaiwei had already begun to collect grain, and the grain in the warehouse was almost full, Zhang Bin had a general understanding that this yard, which covers an area of several acres, could only store 50,000 stone grain!

It seems that if you want to store tens of millions of stone grain, you really have to build a city.

After Zhang Bin took a turn in the warehouse, he immediately asked Xie Zhengyang: "Sixth uncle, can each thousand households gather 300,000 stone of grain now?" ”

Xie Zhengyang nodded again and again: "No problem, no problem, at this time, not only the warehouses of the thousands of households are almost full, but the warehouses of each hundred households are also almost full, and I am afraid that there are millions of stones, I am worried that there is no place to put it, and it is just right to transport it away now." ”

Zhang Bin nodded and said: "Well, that's good, let's organize a carriage to transport the grain to Guangzhou immediately, I brought more than 200 wheels over, and I can transport about 50,000 stone of grain at a time." ”

Xie Zhengyang nodded and said: "Okay, I'll organize people to move it immediately, by the way, Shuangquan, where are you living these days, if you don't dislike the simplicity here, just live here, your sixth aunt misses you a lot." ”

Zhang Bin said embarrassedly: "Forget it this time, I'm still busy, I'll leave today, or next time." ”

When Xie Zhengyang heard this, he was surprised: "Ah, don't you go back with grain, I can make up more than 1,000 ox carts and carriages at most, and I can transport 10,000 stone of grain at a time. ”

When Zhang Bin heard this, he was speechless in embarrassment, not only did he not consider the problem of grain storage, but he also did not consider the problem of grain transportation, how long does it take to transport 10 million stone grain to Jianning Mansion by horse-drawn cart, even if he organizes 10,000 horse-drawn carriages, I am afraid it will take several years, and it is still transported day and night!

It's a matter of course.

He thought about it carefully, and then asked, "Sixth Uncle, I see that the Dongjiang River in the south is quite wide, is there a small fishing port near here?" ”

Xie Zhengyang immediately nodded and said, "Yes, there is one over there in the South China Sea." ”

Zhang Bin nodded and said: "That's okay, don't send the grain to Guangzhou, just send it directly to the South China Sea, I'll let them drive the wheels to the South China Sea, and load the ship directly at the fishing port." ”

When Xie Zhengyang heard this, he was overjoyed and said: "That relationship is good, so it will save a lot of trouble." ”

Zhang Bin nodded, and immediately asked Xie Zhenggang to send someone to Guangzhou to inform people to drive all the wheels over, fortunately, the Dongjiang waterway and the Pearl River are connected, and it is not very troublesome to drive over, but it is impossible for him to leave today, the boat is not full as soon as it comes, more than 200 wheels, it is good to be able to fill it in half a day.

He can only stay here for one night, Xie Zhengyang and his family are naturally happy, the dinner is more sumptuous, and the whole thing is the same as the New Year.

After a night of grinding, early the next morning, he went to the fishing port in the South China Sea, accompanied by Xie Zhengyang and others.

At this time, the South China Sea Central Committee had already organized the guards to start loading, and the wheels stopped at the fishing port wharf, and after loading, they immediately rushed down the river to Guangzhou, and the speed was very fast.

Zhang Bin looked at the busy guards on the dock and fell into deep thought again.

It seems that this granary must also be built near a large river, and if you take the land route, you don't know how much time it will take to transport the grain.

In his mind, he began to recall the terrain of Jianning Mansion again, there is a big river over there, that is, Jianxi, the creek is just a name, Jianxi is not a small stream, but a big river, and the wheels can pass through Jianxi unimpeded.

Where should the granary be built?

He wasn't very familiar with Jianning, so he had only been there for a few days in total, and he really couldn't think of a suitable location in his mind, so he could only look for it after he went over.

This transportation problem is indeed very important, the grain is not much to eat, a person can come to him at most two or three bowls of a meal, but the accumulation of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions, and even tens of millions of people, the number is quite terrifying, especially the granary of tens of millions of stones, must be convenient, the wharf and the road connecting the granary must be built large and wide, and the corresponding wheels and carriages must be prepared, these problems flashed in his mind one by one, and before he knew it, two or three hours passed.

The South China Sea specially organized nearly 500 guards to carry grain, the speed was quite fast, before noon, all the wheels were loaded, Zhang Bin politely refused Xie Zhengyang's retention, and rushed directly to Guangzhou.

He has to hurry back to Fujian to arrange the construction of the granary, otherwise, there will be no place to store the grain produced by Nanhaiwei this year!