The return of Wu Youxing and others made Zhu Youzhen very happy. This time the epidemic prevention and control action in the northwest can be regarded as the real establishment of a set of effective isolation and epidemic prevention work methods and organizational systems.

Of course, the price paid for this was also extremely heavy, because the initial epidemic prevention team did not understand the transmission of the plague and the lack of necessary isolation measures, resulting in its own mortality rate exceeding 50%, even in the later period when the protection measures were more mature, but also because of the negligence and non-discipline of some team members, resulting in a quarter of the team members have been infected with plague.

However, it was under this kind of tempering between life and death that Wu Youxing finally brought out a highly organized and disciplined medical team. In Chongzhen's view, this should be an unexpected joy obtained in the northwest epidemic prevention operation. After all, the plague did not only break out in the northwest region, but also in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, but because of the separation of mountains and rivers in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the migration of civilians in the affected areas was not as easy as in the north, so the scope of the spread would not be as widespread as in the northern regions.

Being able to quell the spread of plague in the central area of the Hetao can be regarded as unraveling a boulder hanging over the heads of the people in the north, otherwise it will be drought and the spread of plague, and Zhu Youzhen doesn't know how to solve such a tricky situation. The spread of the plague required restrictions on the movement of people, and the severe drought in the north forced the victims to move around in search of a way to survive, and whatever countermeasures the imperial court chose were bound to provoke the resistance of the local civilians, thus making the still tenable situation unmanageable.

said that the Northwest Epidemic Prevention Team led by Wu Youxing saved half of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Youzhen believes that this is not an empty word. That's why he didn't hesitate to drop everything and personally went out of the city to greet Wu Youxing and his party who returned to Beijing. This made Wu Youxing and other members of the epidemic prevention team quite at a loss, because of the special nature of their work, the officials and people along the road did not even want them to enter the city to rest, for fear that they would bring the plague god.

In fact, even Wu Youxing himself was thinking about it on the road before, not how to report the details of the northwest epidemic prevention work to the emperor, but how to explain to the officials in the capital that they did not carry the epidemic gas on their bodies, so that they could return to the medical school in the city smoothly.

However, the appearance of the emperor has solved many of the problems faced by the members involved in the epidemic prevention in the northwest. Even the most superstitious officials did not dare to refuse the entry of these doctors who had dealt with the plague god into the city at this moment. The young doctors, who had felt aggrieved along the way, gradually dissipated their dissatisfaction after being greeted by the emperor himself when they went out of the city to greet them.

After welcoming the doctors back, Chongzhen also announced to them in public that the doctors and students who died in the prevention of the epidemic in the northwest would be awarded the title of heroes in recognition of their humanitarian spirit in the fight against the plague.

Although the doctors and students involved in the epidemic prevention in the northwest are more conscious than ordinary people, they are still eager to be understood and recognized. The emperor's recognition of them in person actually made them feel more comfortable than the court's reward. And Wu Youxing was able to conduct a long-term work report with Chongzhen at the first time, so that Chongzhen gained the most detailed understanding of the epidemic in Northwest China.

Chongzhen's actions were not without rewards, the doctors and students of the Northwest Epidemic Prevention Team paid a heavy price in the epidemic area, but they also won the trust and respect of the military and civilians in the epidemic area. In particular, the Mongolian tribal civilians in Ningxia and Tumut River even regarded these Han doctors as Han living Buddhas who saved their tribes.

Because of the achievements of the members of this epidemic prevention team, the civilians of the Chahar tribe and many Mongolian right-wing tribes have always stood firmly on the side of the Tian Khan, so that the Mongol nobles in Monan have lost the basis for separating the country, so as to truly integrate the Mongolian tribes into China.

After talking with Wu You* for a day, Zhu Youzhen's mood was still good. However, the next morning, when he read the minutes of the cabinet meeting brought by Qian Qianyi, his face was a little unpleasant.

"Yesterday the cabinet discussed for a long time, and in the end it could only come to such a conclusion? Put the hope of solving the food problem abroad, and this is the end of the matter? ”

Qian Qianyi was still a little confident before he came, after all, he repeatedly thought about the solution discussed by everyone yesterday, and thought that there should be no better idea than this in the current situation. But now that he was questioned by the emperor like this, he suddenly felt a little empty in his heart.

"The minister and the ministers carefully considered it yesterday, and thought that the only way to solve the problem at the moment was about that. As for the lack of capacity, the ministers thought that they could recruit foreign merchant ships..."

Zhu Youzhen shook his head and interrupted him and said, "Recruiting foreign merchant ships can solve the capacity problem?" Although the offshore area can now be navigated by the lunar distance method, the wreck rate of ships to and from Japan in the Ming Dynasty is still 10%, and the wreckage rate of ships to and from the South Seas is 10%.

In other words, one out of ten grain ships may have an accident, and if you want to buy grain from overseas, you must add a one-tenth of the attrition rate. In addition, the rice processing rate of the Nanyang countries is not enough to process the amount of rice we need in a short period of time, and if we were to replace it with rice for transportation, the volume of transportation would have to be doubled.

This is a simple mathematical problem, and if all these factors are taken into account, it will be difficult for us to ship all of them back to China, at least within this year, even if we have requisitioned enough grain from the Nanyang countries.

In addition, how can the Cabinet, as the highest executive branch of the Ming Dynasty, put the hope of solving the problem in overseas territories that we do not yet have full control? If you can't collect the surplus grain at home, how can you hope that the officials in the foreign territories will collect the surplus grain?

In other words, if overseas food cannot be imported in time, the cabinet should at least have a backup plan to control the situation in the disaster area, right? Are you going to just watch it like this, waiting for a problem in Henan to solve it? ”

Regarding the emperor's questioning, Qian Qianyi was speechless for a while, and was silent for a long time before replying: "But the minister has already asked the ministers of the Ministry of Household and Agriculture yesterday for their opinions, and they think that there is no surplus grain to dig up in the country, and they can only rely on transporting grain from all over Nanyang to fill this gap.

As for His Majesty's worries about the difficulty of transporting grain from overseas, and the control of the disaster areas in Henan and other places, the ministers can discuss with the ministers after they return, and they will definitely give Your Majesty a detailed strategy. However, when Chongzhen was 2 or 3 years old, Henan was also in turmoil for a while, and there were no waves at that time, and the minister thought that the political situation in Daming today was much better than Chongzhen's 2 or 3 years, and there should be no big mess. ”

Chongzhen didn't approve of Qian Qianyi's luck mentality, he retorted disapprecitatively: "How can the situation in Henan in Chongzhen's 2 or 3 years be compared with today, it was not that there was no food in Henan at that time, but that the gentry annexed too much land, which made the people of Henan full of resentment. On that day, the imperial court stood on the side of the people and attacked the local tyrants and inferior gentry in Henan, because even if these local tyrants and inferior gentry gathered troops to resist the imperial court, they could not get the support of the people, and they were just a group of lost dogs.

What's more, these local tyrants and inferior gentry have always been unpopular, they coerce the villagers of their own counties and townships to make trouble on their own territory, and if they want to run to other counties, they will first be beaten back by the gentry militias in other counties. But today, the whole province of Henan has been hit by the disaster, and tens of millions of people have no food to eat.

Today, if Henan is not chaotic, it is already chaotic, and a chaos is the erosion of the whole province. What is Henan? It is the land of the Central Plains, the heart of my Ming Dynasty, and this place is the land of the four wars during the war, that is to say, once Henan is eroded, the exile army will shake Gyeonggi to the north, and the land of grain will be damaged to the south, and the north and south will be cut off from transportation to the east. How can such a place have no backup plan to calm the situation in such a year of famine?

According to the reports I have received here, a large-scale reduction in grain production in more than half of Henan's prefectures and counties is a foregone conclusion, and it is estimated that five or six prefectures and counties will not harvest them. This is not the worst, I am worried that this weather will continue, and there may be no hope for the autumn harvest in Henan.

Therefore, the imperial court should give up all illusions and prepare for the worst. As for what you just said, there is no surplus food to dig in the country, I can't see it. You have discussed so much, why no one mentioned whether there was any surplus grain in the hands of the Jiangnan gentry. Mr. Qian, you might as well talk about it, is there any surplus grain in the hands of the Jiangnan gentry? ”

Qian Qianyi's heart sank suddenly, whether there is food in the hands of the Jiangnan gentry, of course there is food, but everyone will not mention this topic of human life. Although the northern gentry have been beaten by the emperor in these years, this is also under the threat of the Manchu invasion and the chaos of the displaced people inside, and the emperor has given these northern gentry a way out to invest in industry and commerce, so they will choose to accept the reform policy proposed by the imperial court.

However, the southern gentry did not feel the threat of the Manchu invasion and the chaos of the displaced people, first, they had the northern army and civilians to resist them; Second, it benefits from the abundant natural environment in the south. In the eyes of the southern gentry, it was not foreign enemies and displaced people who threatened their daily lives, but the reforms promoted by the current imperial court.

Whether it is the opening of the sea ban, the reform of salt affairs, or the strict collection of industrial and commercial taxes, they are essentially taking money out of the pockets of these Jiangnan gentry. The only people who could benefit from the imperial court's reform policies were a few open ports and a large group of small and medium-sized merchants. For the gentry and big landowners in Jiangnan, the reforms of these years did not bring them much benefit.

However, although the power of the southern gentry was huge, they were not a real political group. In addition, the suppression of the Donglin Party in the year of the Apocalypse, the Yangzhou Salt Case, the Nanjing Scientific Research Case, and the Taihu Lake Bandit Case handled by the Chongzhen Dynasty have already broken the pan-political alliance formed by the southern gentry, so that there is no anti-reform political group that can unite the power of the southern gentry.

But even so, it was difficult for the imperial court to push the reform policies across the Yangtze River, especially in the Jiangnan region. The disobedience of local officials and gentry often made the reform policies of the imperial court shelved, making it difficult to touch the local social strata.

Even Qian Qianyi, who is also from the southern gentry class, can only turn a blind eye to this situation. In his opinion, the Jiangnan gentry were able not to default on taxes and grain, which was already very face-saving to the court, which was also why they were intimidated by the emperor's severe crackdown. In the Taihu Lake bandit case, the court's merciless treatment of those gentry finally made them remember what the country's surname was.

However, these gentry are afraid of imperial power, it does not mean that they are afraid of officials, Chongzhen can be the emperor for a lifetime, can you Qian Qianyi be the first assistant for a lifetime? Not to mention, the gentry in Jiangnan are intertwined, and the wealthy can talk about kinship, and the Changshu Qian family naturally has relatives, so who would really make up their minds to provoke such a behemoth. For more than 200 years in the Ming Dynasty, there was only one Haigang Peak and one Zhangjiangling.