This is the purpose of Yang Qing's implementation of the Public Land Law.

Forcing all those landlords and old wealth to the land in the north that is now deserted, let them become cotton plantation owners, and give up the high-quality paddy fields in the south to those tenants to grow grain.

Daming does have a lot of land.

In fact, Nanzhili alone already has 80 million mu at present, and the entire Ming Dynasty has more than 700 million mu even in Wanli time, which is the result of Zhang Juzheng's Qingzhang, but the real number is definitely more. If this figure is calculated for the population of the Ming Dynasty not exceeding 200 million, it should be able to feed the common people, and even if the northern dry land is calculated per capita, 3.5 mu per capita is still a barely able number. However, the Ming Dynasty was fortunate to catch up with a tragic era, and climate change caused a sharp drop in grain production in the north, and also made a large amount of land lose its cultivation value. The most valuable paddy fields in the south have been changed to mulberry cotton because of the profits from maritime trade, and even to the point that Jiangsu and Zhejiang have to buy grain from other places......

Previously, Huizhou bought grain from Raozhou every year.

Even to the point where the people of Raozhou could not bear it anymore and destroyed their grain ships halfway, after all, the result of their large purchase of grain was the rise in grain prices in Raozhou.

The production in the north has been reduced because of natural disasters, and the production in the south has been reduced because of making money and making crazy money, in this case, the Holy Lord Mingjun really has no power to return to the sky, and Yang Qing still has to face this problem. He didn't solve this root problem, he just tried to ease it as much as possible before, and what he was better than Chongzhen was only to promote new crops, introduce guano fertilizer, and press rice wine to force sweet potato wine......

Don't underestimate this.

Jiangsu and Zhejiang have to consume millions of stone of rice every year just to drink rice wine.

But the silkworms in the south cannibalized people, he didn't solve it.

In fact, not only did it not solve the problem, but even greatly exacerbated the silkworm cannibalism and cotton cannibalism, after all, he brought a boom in overseas trade, and the influx of silver continued to attract landlords to expand mulberry cotton cultivation. Previously, due to the introduction of new crops into mountainous areas, the large-scale application of guano and these measures had a significant effect on yields, which greatly offset the increase in mulberry cotton planting area. But now this effect of increasing production has passed the most significant stage and began to slow down, but the cultivation of mulberry cotton has not slowed down, and it is impossible to expect those landlords to consider food security, they have already made money crazy.

Just like those old landlords in Jiangsu and Zhejiang before the rubber stock market crash, they are also pursuing cotton cultivation with the same madness.

If it is not contained, it will intensify.

But in this era, the yield of the vast majority of cultivated land is very low, and there are only a few pieces of farmland with real quality and high yield, and food security is expected to be guaranteed by these farmlands!

They're precious!

Just like Zheng Guoqu ensured the strength of the Qin State, these small number of high-yield fields are the cornerstone of the stability of the Ming Dynasty!

Yang Qing must ensure that they are used for food production as much as possible, and cannot just focus on making money through exports, money is not the most important thing, food is the most important! But if you want those landlords to resume growing food, they will definitely go crazy, and the public land law will also make them crazy, so why not play thoroughly?

They want to grow cotton?

Go to those wastelands in Henan and plant them!

It is not impossible to grow there, especially in the former buffer see-saw area, the banks of the Yellow River are the main modern cotton-producing areas.

It is indeed difficult to change Sang, but the export of silk is mainly high-end products, and Europe itself is not without silk, and they buy silk from Daming mainly for the exquisite embroidery. But the real volume of silk products in Italy, of course, is not Italy yet, but the silk industry in the Apennine Peninsula has flourished for a long time, so this is bearable for now. The real threat is cotton, and at present the new capitalists in Jiangsu and Zhejiang are also investing frantically in cotton spinning, and they are taking advantage of the military brutality to dump their cheap cotton cloth into the Japanese by dumping large quantities of their cheap cotton cloth, and the markets in India and Southeast Asia have also been opened.

This is a real and serious threat to food security.

Although Yang Qing is also importing cotton, no matter how imported cotton is not as cheap as self-production, especially after the introduction of new cotton seeds, large-scale cotton planting is becoming the unanimous direction of those landlords and old wealth.

And Yang Qing's plan is simple......

"Land is publicly owned."

He said.

"Not owned by anyone!

Even the emperor had no right to sell or cede land to others, and any change in land ownership was only decided by the Four People's Assembly.

The land of the Imperial Village is considered to be owned by the Emperor.

Title fiefs are considered to be the private property of the vassals.

In addition, all civilian land was nationalized regardless of status, but compensation was given to land vouchers depending on the quantity, which were similar to government bonds, which were paid in installments and interest at a later date. In addition, for those who voluntarily hand over the land, the same amount of wasteland in the north will be given a ten-year rent-free right, and no land rent will be collected from them within ten years! In addition, they were given a lease of seed for another thirty years, during which time the state would not reclaim it unless they voluntarily gave it up. The land recovered in the south was re-leased according to the regulations of the Huangzhuang according to the household registration, and then the commune was formed, but it was also required to perform military service.

Cancel the field endowment.

But it was changed to land rent paid to the state.

And the amount of this land rent was also determined by the standard of the imperial village, and theoretically no other taxes would be collected from the peasants. ”

Yang Qing said.

"You're so foolish, aren't you? Give them the right to rent free of the wasteland in the north for ten years, and even if they can grow cotton, who will plant it for them in those places? The common people have gone to the commune, who will be tenants for them? The reason why these people can accept tenants is because there are refugees from the north, and it is impossible for them to find refugees in the north to open up the wasteland! ”

The Empress was speechless.

"They can use slaves!"

Yang Qing said.

"What do slaves eat? Don't slaves need to eat? Wasn't the massive introduction of slaves to solve population growth exacerbate the growth? ”

The Empress said.

"Eat sweet potatoes!"

Yang Qing said with a pure face.

Well, that's the way out of the future he designed for the landlords.

Advance to Slaver.

Give them the right to open up land in Henan, Guanzhong, Hanzhong and even Longyou, especially in Hetao, which can be called a top cotton-producing area, where there is water source irrigation to grow cash crops, not only cotton, but also rape, wine-making sorghum, etc. Slaves are used for labor, and they can eat sweet potatoes anyway, and those thin fields that are cultivated at the same time grow sweet potatoes, and the slaves themselves will solve this problem. In this way, it was possible to ensure the supply of cash crops such as cotton, and to reclaim the wasteland in the north, and to free up the surrounding population, including the Japanese state.

Kill more than one stone.

The only problem is the transportation problem in these places.

But this can be solved by building roads.

Especially in the reclamation of the northeast, those landlords and old fortunes do not need to go in person, what they have in their hands is money, hire a group of thugs to supervise the work, buy a group of slaves to plant, and continue to enjoy the hard-earned money of the slaves in their hometowns, and use their consumption to ensure the taxes of the Ming Dynasty.

They are all ruthless.

As long as such trivial matters are led to the Tao, they will never be better than the slave owners of the American South.

Therefore, in the future, Yang Qing can see the Ming overseers riding horses with guns and carrying whips in their hands in the northern land, wandering around them among the rows of cotton, one by one Japanese slaves or other slaves, keeping their heads down and constantly picking cotton, and those who are a little lazy will immediately have whips falling. After the casual workers, just like under our Qing Dynasty, they crowded around the long table one by one, holding a bowl and drinking sweet potato porridge, nibbling on sweet potato flour cakes, and pickling radishes, and occasionally those who performed well would be rewarded......

Bonus tortillas.

Perhaps the owner who has made a fortune will be merciful enough to give them a rice ball to eat on a special day.

What a perfect world!

And the real fertile land is all given to the yeoman farmers, forming a huge yeoman peasant group and reserves.

That's the real strength.

On the contrary, the pace of industrial development does not need to be too fast.

Because the absolute superiority of the Ming Dynasty has been formed, as long as there is no civil strife, maintaining stable development is almost a lie to win, and no enemy can compete with a huge empire that occupies nearly a quarter of the world's population, and ensures internal stability, and even gains comprehensive superiority in industry, education, military and other aspects.

Therefore, it is necessary to develop industry on the premise of ensuring food security.

The focus is not on going out and making money.

In fact, the vast majority of the world's population is still in a state of abject poverty, although it seems that the overseas is infinitely vast, but in fact, the market is not even comparable to the Ming Dynasty, just like the textile industry even if the development is fast no one buys it. And I am afraid that at least one-third of the population of this world cannot afford to buy clothes, and only a very small number of people can wear silk, so it is indeed no problem for this world to support the industrialization of a country at the level of Britain.

But to support the industrialization of a country of the Ming level, it cannot rely on overseas trade.

It has to rely on domestic demand.

A stable group of yeoman farmers is also a guarantee of domestic demand, and a tenant who has taken away 60% of his harvest from the landlord cannot be expected to have any spending power, but a yeoman farmer who can eat enough will want to buy more.

As for the homesteaders, there is a lack of motivation to be aggressive.

It's just as trivial.

People don't have enough to eat, they can be satisfied with clothes, and this is true at present, but that is only because they have not had enough to eat and have no clothes to wear. And the desire never ends, and soon they will feel like they need more money, drink and eat meat once in a while, and even want to go to the entertainment venues. But the land allocated to them could not support them to live like this, so he would remember that he could actually find some odd jobs in the city during his slack work. When he found out that the little land at home could be cultivated only by his wife and children when he was doing odd jobs, then he would not be satisfied with just doing odd jobs to earn some pocket money......

So he walked out of the countryside step by step.

When his son grows up......

It is said that few of the young men and girls in the Huangzhuang around Nanjing are interested in farming.