Although the Ming version of the planned economy mentioned by Ji Jiliang is somewhat simple, for Zhu Youzhen, he can understand it as soon as he hears it. In fact, China has had a rudimentary form of planned economy since ancient times, and the most outstanding one belongs to Guan Zhong, after all, he used economic means to eliminate the existence of two neighboring countries.

After the Spring and Autumn Period entered the Warring States Period, countries attached more importance to planned planting in agriculture. Otherwise, the Qin State would send hundreds of thousands of troops to attack other countries at every turn, and without an efficient agricultural planting and labor management plan, it is estimated that before the enemy country is captured, its own economy will have been dragged down.

It's just that with the rise of Confucianism, the decline of the hundred schools of thought, whether it is academic, scientific and technological, and institutional degradation. Confucianism's empty talk about scriptures and meanings without emphasizing practicality has led to the decline of Chinese civilization since the Han Dynasty. At the end of the Warring States period, Qin was able to organize an army of 600,000 to attack Chu, but by the time of the Ming Dynasty, the army could no longer organize a battle of 100,000 people.

Famous generals such as Li Chengliang only rely on thousands of Ding Bao to fight the world. Only Qi Jiguang touched a little bit of the organizational system of the modern army, but with his downfall, the Qi family army quickly weakened into an elite army of less than 10,000 people. An army of 100,000 people and an army of 100,000 to fight are completely different things.

The organizational system and planned management always start from the army and decline in the peaceful and prosperous era. For example, Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang ordered that if the people have 5-10 acres of land, they must plant half an acre of mulberry, hemp, and cotton. For those with more than 10 acres, these cash crops should be increased according to the proportion, which is the simplest agricultural planting plan.

But today, in addition to collecting taxes and sending errands, who cares about what farmers plant. Therefore, some households in the south of the Yangtze River grow all cash crops instead of a grain of rice, and there are also farmers in the northwest who only grow grain and do not grow cotton and hemp. As an agrarian society, the state cannot manage agriculture, which means that it cannot control the countryside, and failing to control the countryside means losing the loyalty of the peasant class, which is the largest in the country.

Of course, for the local gentry, such a social situation was exactly the idyllic life they dreamed of. The voices of chickens and dogs are heard by each other, and the old and dead do not get along. The heavens do not change, and neither does the Tao. The descendants of the gentry will always be the gentry, and the descendants of the peasants will always be the peasants. In this regard, the gentry and aristocrats of the East and the West still have a tacit understanding.

Therefore, the organizational system and planned management that had already appeared during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period would be reinvented every other dynasty, and it was not as good as one time.

After all, in the eyes of Confucian masters, these are crooked and heretical ways, and they are strange and clever tricks that have to be used as a last resort when soldiers are fighting in a famine. Once the era of peace and prosperity has arrived, it is the right way to rest with the people and govern the country with scriptures and rituals.

If it weren't for the rise of the Jurchens, the continuous rebellion of the Tusi in the southwest, the successive deaths of Guangzong and Xizong, and the continuous party strife between the DPRK and China, the Ming Dynasty faced the danger of internal and external difficulties, and the civil officials had to seek ways to break through the dilemma and support Chongzhen's reform. I am afraid that such a Ming version of the planned economy will be very difficult to appear.

Just when Chongzhen was greatly moved in his heart, seeing that the emperor had been silent for a long time, Fang Yuegong had to admonish from the side: "Your Majesty, now the agricultural cultivation in all parts of the Ming Dynasty has reached the point where it has to be managed.

In the past three years, China has relied on overseas grain imports to barely survive the difficulties. However, judging from last year's climate change, this widespread natural disaster may be almost over.

And once the Ming Dynasty begins to have a good weather, China's domestic grain production will return to normal, so that the grain produced abroad will impact the domestic grain price. According to the calculations of the Ministry of Households, the price of grain transported from Nanyang to Shanghai is almost equal to the price of grain in the two lakes area. The main reason for this is that although the banknotes of the Ming Dynasty have depreciated in China, the value of the currency has been relatively stable overseas because of the best-selling relationship of China's export goods.

Therefore, if we can't plan the area of cotton, sugarcane, mulberry, hemp and other crops and grains, then even if we usher in a good year, it will not be a good thing for farmers..."

Zhu Youzhen is naturally aware of the development of domestic agriculture in the past two years, if it were not for the climate, with the cultivation of improved varieties by the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the research of composting, accumulation of fertilizer methods, as well as the use of peat and struvite stone, coupled with the construction of rivers and water conservancy in recent years, the annual grain output of the Ming Dynasty would have broken through the historical record.

Moreover, because of natural disasters, the contradiction between northern cotton, southern sugarcane, and grain competing for land is not prominent. But once the climate improves and domestic food prices fall, the land for growing cash crops will certainly rise rapidly. Therefore, it is beneficial for Daming to make a rough agricultural planting plan.

The household officials were able to foresee the harm of overseas grain to the domestic peasants in the bumper year, and they were already quite good officials. Zhu Youzhen felt that it was really a wise move for him to send these household officials to open up wasteland overseas.

After praising himself a little, Zhu Youzhen reined in his mind and said to Fang Yuegong and Ji Jiliang: "The agricultural planting plan that the two of you talked about is still reasonable, and the overseas grain producing areas should indeed become the granary of my Daming to supplement the lack of domestic grain production, but it should not become the existence of damaging my Daming farmers."

Therefore, it is not enough to plan the planting area of cash crops and food crops in China, but we should also plan the cultivation of crops in overseas dependent countries.

For example, the plains of the middle and lower reaches of the Red River have always been the granaries of the Vietnamese. But as you know, the Vietnamese have always been not at peace with each other, and even if they are subdued now, once they recover, they will have to jump out again to challenge the authority of my Ming Dynasty.

In recent years, our country has been short of food due to natural disasters, so most of the grain produced in Vietnam has been shipped back to China, and the Vietnamese themselves are short of food, so naturally they cannot recruit troops to resist us.

However, once our country returns to normal and food prices fall, Vietnam's grain will be hoarded, which may become a military supply for the Vietnamese to rebel against us. So the best way for the Vietnamese to maintain their deferential attitude towards our country is to let them switch to sugar cane and cotton.

In this way, we can use the grain of the Mekong, Chao Phraya and Luzon to control the Vietnamese, and the sugarcane and cotton they produce can be used as raw materials for the Daming factory. As for the Vietnamese landlords, they were also able to make higher profits, so they were more dependent on me.

If Korea, Japan, and the countries of the South Seas can grow crops according to our country's plan, then as long as we control the production area and sea transportation of grain, they will become the most loyal vassals of the Ming Dynasty. Because of the loss of Daming, they can't eat, they can't sell their harvest, and naturally they can't afford to use all kinds of daily necessities produced by Daming.

When that time comes, even if we don't use force..."

When Fang Yuegong and Di Jiliang came out of the Xiyuan Essence House, they saw this colleague looking worried, and he couldn't help but ask out loud in a good mood: "What are you worried about?" Could it be that there is still something wrong with what we just talked about with Your Majesty? ”

Ji Jiliang looked at the solid cement road under his feet, and then looked up at the street lamps erected on the side of the road, and then replied to Fang Yuegong with a frown: "What I talked about with Your Majesty, our household department has studied it for more than a year, and we have discussed it with you for almost three months, and all aspects have been thought out very thoroughly. Even if there is a problem, it will not be a big problem.

It's just that my heart is worried that Your Majesty has taken our agricultural plan and planting management a step further. It is conceivable that in the future, overseas wealth will continue to pour into our country, but is this a good thing for Daming?

In the past, when the treasury was empty, His Majesty could be said to be thrifty in food and clothing, and the old things of the previous generation used to enjoy the utensils in the palace were only three dishes and one soup for His Majesty's three meals a day, which was not as good as the diet of ordinary rich people in the south of the Yangtze River. When the famine broke out the year before last, His Majesty ordered his diet to be changed to two meals a day, with only two dishes and one soup per meal, and the taste of fish and meat in the menu was removed.

His Majesty's life is simple, and Yu thinks that it can only be similar to the Taizu period. It is precisely because Your Majesty is so self-denying and dedicated, that I have been able to reverse the decline of the country in the past ten years, and the internal and external troubles have gradually disappeared, and the eunuchs in the palace are now low-key and law-abiding outside.

However, now that the situation in the country has just improved, the palace has built a large number of projects on the West Garden. Listening to His Majesty's wishes, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will definitely intervene in the overseas agricultural planting planning and the management of the dependent countries and territories. In the future, the wealth from abroad will continue to pour into the inner house, where will His Majesty use this wealth?

And according to His Majesty's plan, from now on, overseas subjects will probably be in a state of exhaustion from time to time, how can they really submit to the Ming Dynasty at that time? Once the external situation changes, there may be something unbearable overseas. ”

Fang Yuegong listened while looking at the snow-covered trees on the side of the road, even under the cover of the snow, these trees were still beautiful, obviously carefully managed by someone on weekdays.

Regarding Ji Jiliang's worries, he replied with some disapproval: "Ji Shilang is too worried, when I was a local official in Songjiang in the past, I wanted to build stone ponds like Haiyan and other places to prevent the tide from washing away the people's fields.

At that time, someone told me that it was a good thing to build a stone pond to defend the fields, but how could I ensure that after the stone ponds were repaired, the protected fields would remain in the hands of the small people.

It must be known that the current production of the fields by the sea is low because of the danger of being washed away by the tide and being soaked by the sea year by year, which is not in the eyes of the gentry and the big families, and gives the small people the opportunity to pioneer and cultivate.

But once the stone pond was built, the land protected by the stone pond would immediately become fat in the eyes of the gentry, and the small people who came here to open up the land would inevitably be driven out by the gentry. Therefore, the stone pond built by using the strength of the people of the whole county was only fattened by some gentry and damaged the interests of the common people.

Do you know what I said at the time? ”

Fang Yuegong suddenly stopped, looked at the other party seriously and asked, Di Jiliang also stopped, looked at Fang Yuegong's exposed eyes for a long time, and then arched his hand and said, "I don't know how Fang Shangshu answered." ”

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