While Shenyang is busy grappling with the financial crisis that erupted after Fan Yongdou fled, a political storm is brewing in Beijing. The cabinet led by M. Qian Qianyi tried to pin their hopes on the import of overseas materials and the endurance of the victims of the Ming Dynasty to survive the drought in the north with Henan as the heart in the twelfth year of Chongzhen.

However, by the end of April, reality had proved that the cabinet was still overestimating, the speed of overseas material imports and the endurance of the Ming disaster victims. Peasant uprisings broke out in Xinyang, Henan, and Caoxian, Shandong.

In Xinyang, the local government mishandled the victims who fled the famine, and at the beginning refused to obey the imperial court's order to set up light cards to prevent the displaced people from assembling near the county seat, and after the displaced people gathered in large numbers near the county seat, they tried to forcibly drive these displaced people away for fear of a popular uprising, and finally provoked the victims to attack the city.

On the other hand, Cao County, Shandong, was a completely premeditated rebellion. The remnants of the White Lotus Sect, who were extinguished during the Apocalypse, took advantage of the Great Wilderness Year to return to Shandong and organize a rebellion.

Xinyang, Henan Province is located near the Jinghan Railway under construction, and it is also the main road for grain from the two lakes to be transported into Henan, so the peasant rebellion on Xinyang's side was quickly extinguished by the official troops of Hubei and Henan, and only a small number of remnants of the army fled to Dabie Mountain.

As for the followers of the White Lotus Sect in Cao County, Shandong, although the peasant army in Xinyang lasted for more than a month, they were quickly defeated head-on by the local militia and the Shandong official army, and thus began to wander around.

At this time, Qian Qianyi and his cabinet ministers finally made up their minds to implement a surplus grain collection system in the southern grain-producing areas and block the traffic arteries in Henan and western Shandong to ensure that the victims would not wander around, and finally assemble an army of displaced people that was difficult to control locally, threatening local stability and the safety of transportation.

With the completion of the Jinghan Railway on 1 June, except for the Yellow River, and the completion of the Tianjin-Pudong Railway on 23 June, in addition to the Grand Canal, there are finally two more north-south transportation trunk roads in the Yangtze River and Yellow River basins, which greatly relieves the pressure on the transportation of grain from the south to the north. At the same time, the main railway lines in Henan also ensured that the officers and troops were able to control a large area with a small number of people, and separated and confined the victims to their hometowns.

The measures imposed by the imperial court to restrict the movement of people in the disaster area were not in essence a way to save the victims. If the purpose of this policy is to be understood with malicious intent, it is actually to force the victims to help themselves at home, and not to turn them into extremely destructive displaced people, thus further expanding the scope of the disaster area.

After all, in such a vast disaster area, the displaced people gathered are almost no different from locusts, and the places they pass through are also barren. This migration will continue until the displaced people have access to adequate food or until most of them starve to death. Most of the local people who are harassed by them will also become part of the displaced people.

Whether it was restricting the movement of the people in the disaster area or imposing a surplus grain collection system on the southern gentry, it was an unacceptable disorderly government for some people. Therefore, not long after the proclamation issued by the imperial court was made public, the impeachment of the cabinet and the opposition to the surplus grain collection system had already flown into the palace like snowflakes.

Zhu Youzhen naturally ignored the resistance of these Jiangnan gentry, these Jiangnan gentry may seem to be intertwined and powerful, but for him, a class that can only exist by relying on the Ming system cannot use the power within the system to deal with himself, unless these Jiangnan gentry go out and openly raise the banner of secession or rebellion, then there may be a glimmer of success.

However, in Zhu Youzhen's memory, the weakness of the Jiangnan gentry was also famous, otherwise the Manchu Qing would not have eliminated Nanming so easily. The battle of Jiangnan, which was slightly exciting at the end of the Ming Dynasty, was probably also the battle of Jiangyin. Other cities were either easily destroyed and slaughtered, or opened the door to surrender, and even a fortified city like Nanjing took the initiative to open the door to welcome the Qing army into the city.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen felt strange, Lord Man robbed the Jiangnan gentry with a knife, and the Jiangnan gentry not only did not complain at all, but also desperately sang praises to Lord Man. Why did he order these Jiangnan gentry to take out some food, they have become sinners for thousands of years, and the guards of the emotional Lao Tzu are holding burning sticks?

However, there are always some people who can't even figure out their position, and can't wait to jump out, wanting to criticize the emperor on behalf of God, as if this God is not surnamed Zhu, but surnamed Kong.

On the morning of 25 July, some low-ranking officials in the capital and 49 scholars living in Beijing from all over the city, under the leadership of Jin Shengxi and Wu Weiye, wrote to the emperor at Zuoshunmen, saying: "Today is extremely dangerous, and the emperor is now mourning the edict, sympathizing with others and sinners, thinking about blame and fearing disasters..."

This book, written by Wu Weiye and polished by Jin Shengxian and others, has only one heart, that is, the country is full of disasters and difficulties today, not about how much food the gentry can hand over, but because God issued a warning to Chongzhen, asking the emperor to return to the right path. Don't continue to undermine the code of ethics, spoil the evil spirits, make yin and yang out of tune, and the four times are not smooth.

All in all, under this flowery rhetoric, Wu Weiye and others asked Chongzhen to learn from Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's edict against himself, stop all reform policies that are contrary to human ethics, cultivate one's self and pray to heaven, and the disaster will naturally pass.

When the news of Jin Shengsi, Wu Weiye and others in Zuo Shunmenshu reached Huadian, Qian Qianyi was immediately frightened. Outsiders are rumored to be Jin Shengsi's nephew, and Qian Qianyi has never clarified this rumor, but the intimate relationship between Qian Qianyi and his disciples and Jin Shengsian is well known. Therefore, when Qian Qianyi was appointed as the first assistant of the cabinet, Jin Shengxian was finally recommended and entered Yenching University as a lecturer.

But in fact, Qian Qianyi knew in his heart that there was no uncle-nephew relationship between him and Jin Shengsi, he just cherished Jin Shengsi's talent, so he just allowed the rumors to spread. His acquaintance with Jin Shengxian started from a descent.

Jin Shengsigh believes in God and Buddha, likes to read Buddhist scriptures and make friends with monks, began to help in Wu County at the age of 20, and has helped many scholars and doctors in Jiangnan, because he can often say the mind of the subject, so he is highly respected by Ye Shaoyuan and others. Qian Qianyi was confused by Jin Sheng's sigh in Fupingzhi, thinking that he was the reincarnation of Donglin Huiyuan, a senior monk of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

Wu Weiye alienated the members of the Fushe after the Nanjing scientific expedition, but because of his outstanding achievements, he was quickly led to the new Donglin Party by Qian Qianyi. Such two people who have a lot to do with Qian Qianyi wrote to the emperor, even Qian Qianyi himself felt that this book was inseparable from him, let alone others.

But what made Qian Qianyi feel very wronged was that he really did not hint that the two of them had organized the scholars of the capital to write to the emperor, and even he was not aware of this matter. Therefore, after hearing the news, he immediately put down his affairs and hurriedly came to the Xiyuan Jingshe to see the emperor, wanting to distinguish one or two for himself.

When Qian Qianyi rushed to the Xiyuan Retreat, he was told that the emperor was in the Taoran Pavilion by the Taiye Pool at the moment, and he was not in the Retreat. Not far from the Jingshe, Taoran Pavilion is a newly built waterside pavilion, which is a great place to cool off in summer.

Hearing that the emperor was still in the mood to cool off in Taoran Pavilion, Qian Qianyi's nervous mood couldn't help but relax a lot, and he immediately ordered the eunuch of Jingshe to lead him to Taoran Pavilion.

Zhu Youzhen, who was tasting food, saw Qian Qianyi appearing on the garden path, so he beckoned the other party to sit opposite him, pushed the three plates in front of him in front of Qian Qianyi and said: "This is a kind of meat product researched by the Imperial Dining Room, Mr. also taste it and give some advice." ”

Looking at the food on the plate that was pink in color but showed round slices, Qian Qianyi couldn't recognize what kind of meat it was for a while, but he still took the knife and fork handed by the emperor and took a part of each of the three plates.

Qian Qianyi immediately put down the knife and fork, took the water cup handed by the emperor and took a sip of water, before saying: "Well, it tastes like meat, but it is extremely tender, but the taste is still a little salty... What kind of meat are these. ”

Zhu Youzhen thought for a while and said, "You can call it Spam, or you can call it luncheon meat." It is made by crushing meat, ham, potato starch, sugar, salt, and various spices and then pressing. Of course we mainly use pork, but there are some other meats. ”

After listening to the luncheon meat processing process described by Chongzhen, and knowing that the luncheon meat he had just eaten had been stored for more than three months at the longest, Qian Qianyi's face suddenly became very exciting, he couldn't help but pick up the water cup and take another big sip of water, swallowing back the itchy feeling in his throat.

"Why give it a foreign name? Wouldn't it be nice to call luncheon meat directly? Qian Qianyi asked after calming his emotions.

Zhu Youzhen motioned for Lu Qi to remove the luncheon meat plate, and said to Qian Qianyi: "You see, if we call it luncheon meat, someone will definitely ask what kind of meat is it made of." If we put a spam in front of it, people will think that maybe this is the meat of an animal called spam, and then people will not be very disgusted with it.

In addition, by choosing a foreign name, you can also disassociate the relationship between this luncheon meat and the imperial dining room, and make people think that it is a canned meat invented by foreigners. If the soldier eats angrily, at least he won't curse me and the imperial dining room. ”

Qian Qianyi looked at the plate taken away by Lu Qi with some disgust, and couldn't help but say: "Since Your Majesty thinks that soldiers will be disgusted with this kind of canned food, why don't you provide them with fresh meat or salted meat, I think the taste of salted meat is much better than what luncheon meat." ”

Zhu Youzhen shrugged his shoulders and said: "With a large amount of soybeans produced in the Northeast before, the soybean meal after we have squeezed the oil can also be used to feed the pigs, so the army's meat can still be supplied."

But in this year's weather, how many soybeans can be sold to us by the Manchu side remains to be considered. Before the grain base in the south did not operate normally, it was difficult for the meat supplied to the army to be normal.

The training of the army is an abuse of soldiers if there is no supply of meat and non-staple food. Although the taste of spam is not very good, it can at least replace meat and maintain the basic needs of soldiers. In addition, the price of Spam is only about a third of that of fresh meat, and if we can replace pork and lard with whale meat and blubber fat, the price can be even cheaper..."

After hearing the price of Spam, Qian Qianyi suddenly no longer disliked this cheap canned meat. After five or six years as the chief assistant of the Ming Dynasty, any measure that can reduce expenditure is in his opinion a good governance that benefits the country and the people.

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