In the flower pavilion, the two sat opposite each other. Zhu Pingjin was gushing, and Luo Yuhong was interspersed with cold words.

"What is the concept of three million? It is less than the population of Chengdu in our previous life! Is this possible?

Sichuan has the custom of early marriage and early childbearing, and the population is increasing rapidly. During the Chengping period, almost fifteen years was a generation. We don't need accurate statistics, we just go out and look around, and our intuition will tell us that there are more than three million people! I have seen a figure before, saying that the population of Sichuan reached nearly 60 million in 49 years, slightly more than one-tenth of the national population; According to the census of '82, Sichuan's population was more than 100 million, close to one-tenth of the country's. This is no coincidence!

I estimate that the population of Sichuan is between 7 million and 150,000 at present. There are about 35 million people in the vast areas of western Sichuan, southern Sichuan, and eastern Sichuan, as well as the military-civilian government and military guards, for which there are no official statistics. Excluding these populations, there are at least seven million to fifteen million mouths to eat. With this numerical basis, we can deduce Sichuan's food demand: the annual life and death line is 3,000 to 60 million stones. Based on the current average yield of two stones per mu, how much arable land is needed? Fifteen million to 30 million acres. Therefore, one person, two acres and four stones of grain, this is the "constant of life and death" that we derive!

Please note: it's "arable land", not "arable land"! At present, there are 30 million mu of arable land in the province, so why is there a large-scale grain shortage? The main reason is the terrible desertion! A terrifying mass abandonment! According to reports from Wangzhuang and some sporadic news from various places, the situation in Renshou County is by no means unique, but the general situation in Sichuan. In central Sichuan, northern Sichuan, southern Sichuan, and eastern Sichuan, many areas have been abandoned for dozens or even hundreds of miles. Although it is impossible to know the exact number of abandoned land, judging from the current high price of food in the market and the continuous influx of displaced people into Chengdu Prefecture, it can be roughly inferred that there is too much abandoned land and too little arable land!

Not only has arable land been abandoned, but weather conditions have also severely restricted grain production. To put it nicely, it's called relying on the sky to eat, but to put it ugly, it's gambling, gambling with the lives of tens of millions of people! Last year, the drought in Sichuan, especially in southern Sichuan, greatly reduced the output of grain and tea. This year's situation is good, the wind and rain are smooth everywhere, but before the end of the autumn harvest, no one dares to guarantee how much will be harvested in the end. In my impression, the Xiaoice period will not end until the braids play, so our hard days are still to come. This year, Henan is still in a severe drought, starving for thousands of miles, and the victims are everywhere, Li Zicheng took the opportunity to resurrect and eat the Fuwang stewed venison, and is still attacking the seal. Where will there be a big drought next year, will it be our turn in Sichuan, will there be another peasant rebel army that we have never heard of? None of us know!

All of this has formed a basic judgment of mine. That is, our current military crisis and social crisis, which has both class and national contradictions, but in essence it is an agricultural crisis, a contradiction between the serious shortage of grain production and the needs of the existing population! To solve this crisis, develop agricultural production, and increase grain output are the keys to solving all problems! Guan Zi said, Cang Liao knows etiquette. If people don't have food, what can't they do? ”

Zhu Pingjin gushed about the results of his observation and thinking for half a year, waving his arms vigorously during this time. And his wife Luo Yuhong didn't raise her head, only a quill rattle on the paper.

Zhu Pingjin stopped and drank water to moisten his throat, and continued along the train of thought:

"I'm not Hitler, I can't justify the extermination of the superfluous population. Sichuan, a ghost place, is like a closed stuffy pot, and it is impossible to alleviate the pressure of the population through population migration. On the contrary, I am also concerned that the influx of refugees from the surrounding provinces will exacerbate the current food crisis. To solve the problem of eating, under the existing technical conditions, I can solve it only by increasing the amount of arable land and grain yields......"

Zhu Pingjin's conclusion was disheartening, and her wife interrupted him in time.

"I know that you have studied philosophy and are accustomed to using the theory of contradiction to analyze and solve problems. What is the main contradiction, what is the secondary contradiction, and so on. But now that it's a time of war, it's going to be a time of death, a lot of death! Chen Youfu told me that the Baoning Mansion, Shunqing Mansion, Chongqing Prefecture, and Kuizhou Prefecture in northern Sichuan and eastern Sichuan, and the loess thugs there robbed and killed people everywhere in dozens of prefectures and counties, including Tongjiang, Dazhou, Bazhou, Yuechi, Guangyuan, Hezhou, and Baxian. They go when the peasants are planting, and they come when the peasants are harvesting. There are countless people who have been killed, those who have been starved to death, those who are called Hanako, and those who have been caught up in the tyrants. Not to mention, just counting your caravan, how many of them are displaced people from eastern Sichuan and northern Sichuan?

Therefore, my conclusion is that the abandonment of land will be accompanied by a decrease in grain production and a large loss of population! The more severe the land abandonment, the more serious the corresponding population decline, and there is a positive correlation between the two. As far as I know, the phenomenon of abandonment is uneven in Sichuan. Some areas in northern Sichuan, eastern Sichuan and southern Sichuan are seriously abandoned. But in western Sichuan, especially near Chengdu, it is very rare. The more common problem is that there are more people and fewer people! Therefore, you can't just use static methods to estimate the population, but also take into account the uneven distribution of the population caused by local dynamic changes!

In addition, the estimation of the population based on your perception with the naked eye is even more outrageous! Let's take a simple example. Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan Province and the largest city. But how big is the area inside the walls of Chengdu? The people on the street said that the size of Chengdu is ten miles through the city. It is only equivalent to the inner ring road of our previous life, turning around along the Funan River, and there is still a long gap between the first ring road! And how big was Chengdu in our past? More than 30 kilometers through the city! In the future, when we have the conditions, we will still have to build a statistical agency to accurately count the population and land ......."

A basin of ice water poured down on his head, allowing Zhu Pingjin to calm down immediately. My wife's opinion is very pertinent and terrible. The "uneven distribution of the population caused by local dynamic changes" of the population may mean the life and death of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people, but this is the current reality in Sichuan. Zhang Xianzhong's massacre of Luzhou and Renshou, and the murder of bandits in Pengshan County, all directly led to a sharp decline in the local population. Otherwise, how could Zhu Pingjin have more arable land, so that he could let go of the resettlement of the victims and engage in the so-called division of land and land? Looking at the whole country, the situation in Sichuan is still good. In Henan, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Beizhili and other provinces, natural disasters and military disasters have caused the local population to drop sharply year after year, and the number is as high as several percent!

Zhu Pingjin fell into deep thought, but his wife's voice was still the same.

“…… We are not God, nor are we saviors. God played a bad joke on our unfortunate couple and threw us into this terrible time and space. If we have an advantage, we only have a foreknowledge of the future and some knowledge that may not be useful. Anything else, we have nothing else to do, and a dirty bandit can easily kill me. If we are finished, any foresight and advanced knowledge will be useless, and in the end everyone will still have to watch the pigtail play. So, first of all, we need to preserve ourselves and devote all the resources we can now to this goal. ”

"Your opinion is very good, untie one of my knots!" Zhu Pingjin covered his face with his hands, and the voice slowly squeezed out of his throat.

Her husband's heart was struggling and suffering, and Luo Yuhong felt it.

She reached out and took the man's hand in her palm.

"I understand you. You have a black heart and are very good at disguise. To achieve your goals, you can play with everyone else but me! But it's not in your nature. In the depths of your heart, there is a kindness, a responsibility, and a responsibility! In essence, we are all the way, so we were able to come together back then. You want to change the world, and I support you, but we can't do more than we can do.

Now the situation in Sichuan is like a dilapidated house in disrepair, leaking wind and rain everywhere. We live in it, and we can't push it to rebuild, we have to tinker with it, and we have to be light on our feet so as not to wake up the other people inside and outside the house. So the priority goal in my heart is: use your status as the son of Shu to quickly straighten out the affairs of the palace! The two of us talk privately and put a guard outside the fence, how can this happen? I think it's good that Wang Zhuang is in charge. Now the civil unrest has just subsided, and the people's minds are stable. If we increase the production of Wangzhuang and lower the standard of taxation, we will be able to stabilize the people's minds and set an example in the whole province and even the whole country. Your donation business is good to start, isn't it? Your army is also going to change its outfits. Thousands of troops, all armed with spears and broadswords. Don't forget, the two of us are traversers, don't embarrass the traversers, okay! ”

At this time, Zhu Pingjin had already broken free from the intense emotions. He rubbed his eyes and said, "The best environment for rectifying the army is in the midst of war. The cruelty of war will force the army to carry out all-round reforms! The two battles of Yazhou and Pengshan have played out the confidence of the caravan and my prestige in the army. I urgently need a suitable enemy right now to pull the army out and train my hands. ”

"Fighting will also tie you and Liao Tycoon tightly! Now you are secretly training and expanding the army, and you are hiding every day. But the ancients were not fools, and sooner or later the truth of the matter will be revealed. Only by fighting can you justifiably obey the government and get the permit to train and expand the army, so that Liu Zhibo and the court behind him will not dare to trouble you......"

The wife's meaning is to borrow bandits to respect themselves, which coincides with Zhu Pingjin's thoughts. Although the secluded base of Bifeng Gorge and Songlin Mountain can be hidden for a while, the army itself is made up of all kinds of people. The larger the army, the harder it is for the army to be invisible. Rather than this, it is better to train and expand the army with a dignified and upright reason in the name of suppressing bandits!

"Bandits cannot be exterminated overnight. Food and armaments take time to raise. I temporarily postponed the entry of troops into northern Sichuan until July and August, and reduced the number of troops to the battalion level. When the thugs come out to grab the food, we will fight. There is only one purpose for sending troops this year: to try your hand and stand still. Full opening will be put into next year. In any case, before Zhang Xianzhong enters Sichuan again, I must have a relatively stable rear. ”

"It's good to figure it out." The wife pursed her lips and smiled, and let go of Zhu Pingjin with her slender hand, "I don't understand the things of war." But to fight the local tyrants, you have to use Chen Youfu. When he talks about the thug, the eyes can kill...... You continue to talk about the food issue, and I will take note of it. ”