"Don't wait for their reply. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infoWe did it ourselves, from Qingdao and Qinhuangdao to the inland. The railway should seize the time to carry out construction, and if the railway advances to a county, it will be able to save the people of a county. ”

While the warship went north to Tianjin, Zhu Jinglun personally presided over the disaster relief meeting.

The catastrophe has not yet fully erupted, but a famine that is likely to spread very widely is already imminent, and the price of food in the entire north and even in the Ming Dynasty is soaring.

Shang Shu ordered Chen Zhiting to lead the senior officials of the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Industry, and the Ministry of War to gather together.

"If the construction of the railway is obstructed by the local people, how should we deal with it?"

Chen Zhiting was a little worried about the problems of the people.

The problem of the people, this is also one of the main factors that the Ming Dynasty has never started construction of these railways for ten years. After all, if the railway can be easily built and the rich mineral resources in northern China can be developed, in Zhu Jinglun's view, this will play a huge role in promoting the industrial accumulation and industrialization of the Ming Dynasty.

But it has not been started, because Zhu Jinglun knows very well that this road is definitely not easy to repair, when the Ming army captured Beijing, the Manchu court signed the alliance under the city, at that time, as long as the Ming was willing to withdraw the army, let them promise anything, not to mention that in the end did not ask for the land, just build two roads, there is nothing that can not be promised, Daming Lai fought with them in Beijing for the world, which was the most feared by Cixi's orphans and widows at that time.

But after the Ming Dynasty withdrew its troops, the Manchu court would not be so easy to speak, even if their court was willing to cooperate, the local officials would not actively cooperate with the Ming Dynasty land acquisition, and the people would not cooperate.

Historically, when the Germans built the Jiaoji Railway, the peasants in the Gaomi area were armed resistance, resulting in the suspension of the railway for a year, and finally the Germans sent troops to suppress it, and the railway construction was advanced under the protection of the army's bayonets.

Of course, the Ming Dynasty can't slaughter the compatriots in the north in order to build the railway, and let the northerners shed blood, how can they be persuaded to be the same as the compatriots in the south in the future?

That's why the railroad has been delayed until now.

But now it can't be repaired, and without smooth transportation, it is impossible to relieve such a severe famine. Even if there is no stockpile, it is impossible to bring it in. Even Zhu Jinglun has already regretted that he took public opinion too seriously before, so that he is now passive.

sighed and said: "I can't take care of it, according to the standards of the Ming Dynasty to build a railway, compensate the landlords along the line, whether you want to let them or not, this is a life-saving railway." ”

Zhu Jinglun asked again: "How is our warehousing situation?" ”

After the outbreak of famine in the north, Zhu Jinglun immediately asked the household department to comprehensively investigate the reserves of the Ming Dynasty, after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the traditional grain reserve system was restored, and the government's grain reserves were divided into regular liquidation and social warehouse, the main purpose of regular liquidation was to stabilize grain prices, and the social warehouse was an emergency need.

The basic principle is that if a person has a load of grain to eat, he will not starve to death, and even if he suffers from famine for a year, he can still live. The storage system of the Qing court was based on one load of grain per household, and their purpose was to fight against a season of famine, waiting for a bumper harvest of new grain and waiting for the famine to end.

In the Jiaqing period, the Sichuan household registration was 5.05 million households, and the grain storage reached 4.65 million quintals, which basically reached one quintal per household, but after Xianfeng, in a province like Henan, the grain stored in the official account books was only 950,000 quintals, which was obviously not enough at all.

The population of the Ming Dynasty is 80 million, and according to the regulations, 40 million quintals of grain should be stored, and this is a huge project; according to the calculation of removing one-third of the old grain every year, the number of reserve grain that needs to be replaced every year is tens of millions of quintals, and it is impossible to do such a huge grain trade without a solid economic foundation.

In fact, it is only in the last five years that Daming has really perfected the reserve system, because in recent years, the financial revenue has soared, and it has approached 100 million taels, which is barely enough to have this strength.

"Now that the treasury of the 14 counties of Guangfu has just been inspected, each county should prepare 10 million quintals of grain, and it has been verified that the reserve is 8 million quintals, and the floating arrears are 2 million quintals!"

Zhang Jingxiu, the head of the household, reported truthfully.

Zhu Jinglun frowned: "Why are there so many vanity?" ”

As Guangdong's agriculture became more and more economical, the common people planted more and more cash crops, and the importation of grain became more and more serious, Zhu Jinglun also paid more and more attention to food security, and the net import of grain in the country every year was more than 30 million quintals, and the government supplemented one-third of the total.

In addition, the inspection of Daming's warehouse management is quite strict, to put it mildly, it is more important than the corruption of inspection officials, but I didn't expect that there would be loopholes.

This is the case in the most developed Guangzhou Prefecture, and I am afraid that the vanity in other places will be even more serious, which cannot help but make him nervous.

Zhang Jingxiu explained: "There is one million that was not completed last year, and another million has just been released recently. ”

Zhu Jinglun snorted coldly: "Check, check the situation." If it is corruption, it must be punished severely. If there is no corruption, it is also a dereliction of duty, and it must be investigated to the end. ”

Zhang Jingxiu said: "The officials involved in the case have been arrested and are under trial. ”

Although the supervision has always been very strict, but still can not organize the corruption situation, can only sigh that the Chinese officials are obsessed with making a fortune, the old idea of promoting officials to make a fortune does not change, this situation will always exist, can not be avoided, the later generations of South Korea created an economic miracle, but still can not solve the corrupt behavior of officials and chaebol collusion, so this kind of thing can only be patient to cultivate the spirit of clean government, not in a hurry.

Zhu Jinglun sighed: "If the situation is serious, I'm afraid it would be good to have 30 million in the treasury, there will be no disaster in Daming this year, there will be no disaster in Vietnam, Siam, and Burma, and the food supply in Daming this year should be able to meet." But we can't throw all the reserves away, and we must leave 10 million quintals for emergencies. It can be used to come to the north for disaster relief, at most 20 million quintals, which cannot feed 200 million people! ”

In the event of a full-blown famine in the north, which would affect nearly 200 million people, it was clear that there would be not enough food. However, the people also have some grain stocks, and it is impossible for 200 million people to be on the verge of starvation, and if these 20 million loads of grain can be transported, at least 10 million people will not starve to death.

But this is only an ideal state, because the current management methods and levels cannot accurately deliver food to every dying person, and even in some places the people are well fed, while in some places the whole village may starve to death.

All that is needed is as much food as possible.

"We still have to increase imports, communicate with the grain industry, let them find a way to import grain, and we can give them all tax exemption this year. But let them restrain Xingdong well, and the price of grain in the Ming Dynasty cannot be higher than two taels of silver. If the decree is issued, those who violate the decree will be punished by hoarding. ”

The traditional law strictly prohibits this kind of behavior of raising prices in disaster years, so every disaster year, a group of grain merchants must be killed, because the people think that these merchants are hateful, and hoarding in famine years is to drink the blood of the people. In fact, many price increases are economic behaviors, and if they do not increase prices, some grain stores will have to close.

Zhu Jinglun also took these into account: "If there is a loss, the government will subsidize it, and the Guangfu Bank can directly lend to the grain bank, and the government will return it after the subsidy." ”

With the increasing scale of imported grain in recent years, neighboring countries have increased grain production, Vietnam, Siam and Myanmar are the three major exporters, each of which exports are around 10 million quintals, in addition to the Philippines and Cambodia's grain exports are also increasing, of which Cambodia and France's increase in production is mainly due to the French efforts to develop the Mekong Delta, the increase in production in the Philippines and Siam, mainly due to the increase in Chinese immigrants to develop new land, as for Myanmar, it is the British capital.

But no matter who promoted the increase in production, the final grain trading was basically completed by the Ming merchants, and the guild of the grain merchants who made huge profits from it also became a powerful commercial force, not losing to the nylon hall of the year.

"It is impossible for the grain in Nanyang to grow so much at once. We have to find a way to import from other places, the United States has a huge grain production, and in the past few years of economic crisis, the price of food in the United States is extremely low, and we have to find a way to import from the United States. The Ministry of Rites and Foreign Affairs should actively cooperate with the Ministry of Household Affairs and contact the US Government to see if it can borrow a sum of money in the United States and issue bonds of at least $100 million in New York. ”

The United States is the world's largest grain exporter, the economic crisis in recent years, the price of grain in the United States is very miserable, not to mention grain, an adult bull in Texas, only sold for four dollars, a cow is obviously much more expensive than a ton of grain, a ton of grain is more than ten quintals, farmers in the Midwest of the United States, the cost of cultivating an acre of corn is only seven or eight dollars, and the sale will not exceed ten dollars, the yield of an acre of corn is almost ten quintals, and a quintal is less than a dollar.

But transportation is the biggest problem, compared with the low price of grain, the transportation of grain in the United States is extremely expensive, through the Erie Canal to transport a ton of grain to the port of New York, the cost of freight is ten dollars, which is equivalent to doubling the price of grain.

But now Daming can't think about the price, and what he has to think about is how to ship the grain back from the United States.

"Contacting the U.S. shipping companies directly, not asking them to reduce the shipping costs, but asking them to guarantee the volume of transportation. It's a huge business, and I'm sure they'll prioritize it. ”

After the Civil War, the U.S. shipping industry and shipbuilding industry began to decline all the way, and even the shipping giant, the richest man in the United States, Vanderbilt, switched from the shipping industry to the railroad industry, so Zhu Jinglun couldn't help but worry about whether the U.S. shipping company had such a large capacity.

"We also have agreements with transport companies in the UK. I believe they are willing to open more routes from the United States to Guangdong. ”

Zhu Jinglun added.

After that, everyone discussed some details, and then began to work intensively to formulate and implement measures.

In short, everyone has only one purpose, that is, to treat the northern disaster victims as their own subjects to help, Zhu Jinglun's idea is relatively pure, that is, to save people, every Chinese's life is priceless. However, the officials are also enthusiastic, but they mainly think that this is a good opportunity to buy the hearts of the people in the north, and in the eyes of the civil officials, the world of those who win the hearts of the people is always the greatest truth, and the unification of the country is obviously the most desired achievement in their lives.

However, before the disaster relief operation began, the British came to the door to protest, they protested against the blockade of Tianjin by the Ming navy and the coercion of the Manchus. They demanded that the Ming navy lift the blockade and withdraw from Bohai Bay, on the grounds that such a blockade would affect the interests of the British Empire in the region.

In fact, they were more concerned about the Ming being too powerful, and they had already begun to worry that the balance of power in the Far East would be broken, and if the Ming unified the East Asian continent, the British felt that they were likely to lose their influence in this region, and they could not accept it unless they could be compensated.

Zhu Jinglun couldn't help but sigh: "This-stirring stick, why is she everywhere!" ”