The fifteenth year of Chongzhen was destined to be a restless year, and before the end of the first month, the cabinet and the household department began to get busy. For Zhu Wannian, who had just been transferred back to the Ministry of Household Affairs and was his deputy, he still greatly admired the imagination and courage of those young technical bureaucrats in the Grain Bureau of the Ministry of Households.

With the continuous refinement and extension of the functions and powers of various departments of the Ming Dynasty, not only a large number of independent operating departments were established under the past six ministries, but also divided into two different positions: bureaucrats and technocrats in each department. In principle, most of the bureaucrats came from the imperial examinations; Technocrats, on the other hand, are promoted not only from the bottom of the civil service, but also from within the school system.

The advantage of the former is that the relationship between master and apprentice is everywhere, so after a few years of precipitation in the official career, you can understand the operation of the entire Ming system, so as to have a more overall concept, and the decisions made are more likely to be in line with the steps of the imperial court. The strength of the latter lies in technical expertise, a better understanding of the responsibilities and capabilities of the department, and a better alignment of the decisions made.

Generally speaking, in departments such as the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Industry, and the Ministry of War, the duties of the technocrats are more important, and without their cooperation, the operational efficiency of the entire department has at least doubled. For example, the most indispensable person in the grain bureau is not the official who is responsible for managing the granary, but the official who allocates the grain transportation capacity. Only these technical officials, who are skilled in overall planning, can make the most efficient allocation of the boats and vehicles that can be used by the household.

Except for a small number of these technical officials, the current recruits are all from the mathematics departments of various universities, among which the mathematics departments of Yenching University are the most. Even one of the most important capacity distribution models of the Food Bureau is that Professor Galileo and his disciples at the School of Natural Sciences of Yenching University have developed it.

It is precisely on the basis of this mathematical model that the originally disorderly mode of grain transportation in the Ming Dynasty gave way to orderly transportation arrangements, which made the efficiency of grain transportation from overseas and south to north three times higher in just one year. This not only greatly reduces the cost of grain transportation, but more importantly, it also reduces the loss on the road, so that the disaster area can obtain a minimum food security, so that the social order in the northern disaster area does not finally collapse.

It is precisely through the test of grain allocation in different regions that these technical officials have stimulated their imagination to eliminate the food shortage caused by natural disasters to the Ming Dynasty by planning agricultural planting in different regions.

However, what Zhu Wannian never expected was that Ji Jiliang, who went to the emperor to report with the plans made by these young officials with their dreams, brought back a more ambitious plan from the emperor. When Ji Jiliang summoned his subordinates, announced the plan revised by the emperor, and watched these young officials happily go out to revise the plan, Zhu Wannian couldn't help but ask Ji Jiliang with some doubts, why the other party's attitude has changed so much, after all, Ji Jiliang did not have such a supportive attitude towards this plan before.

Ji Jiliang glanced at his deputy, then closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair and said: "Because someone told me that the responsibility of officials is to stir up turbidity and promote purity, to punish evil and promote good, to guide the people to live a better life, and to teach the people what is right and wrong...

It is better to do nothing just because you are afraid of being responsible, it is better to take off this official uniform and go back to the countryside. As for the planning of agriculture, no matter how you look at it, it is beneficial to my Daming. As long as it can make my Ming people's power more abundant, then this thing should be done.

As for whether there will be other sequelae in the future, then we will consider and solve it at that time. It must be known that with the current situation of my Ming Dynasty, I can only settle inside and then look at the outside, otherwise the contradictions between the court and the gentry will be even more intensified, and it will be a situation full of smoke. I thought about it for a long time, and I think what he said makes sense..."

For an ordinary bureaucrat like Zhu Wannian, it is easy to miss a large part of what Ji Jiliang said earlier, and only remember the last two sentences. When he thought about it again, he was also scared into a cold sweat. Sure enough, if you don't transfer the population overseas to obtain wealth, I'm afraid that the imperial court will not be able to hold it first, and it will have to go to the gentry and rich households in the south of the Yangtze River.

Emperor Shenzong and Emperor Xizong did not do anything less, and with Emperor Chongzhen's admiration for his brother, I am afraid that there will be no psychological obstacles to learning to start, after all, this majesty dares to forcibly implement land reform in the northern provinces. After Zhu Wannian withdrew from Ji Jiliang's office, he suddenly remembered something, so he turned around and left the Food Bureau and ran to the Daming Grain Merchants Association, which was two streets away.

Not long after Zhu Wannian entered, he was personally sent out by the association's representatives in the capital, Zheng Haishan and Zheng Hailin. Zheng Haishan whispered in Zhu Wannian's ear to make an appointment for a visit, and then let Zhu Wannian drift away.

"Brother, do you want to report this news home as soon as possible..."

"Shut up, if there's anything to say, let's talk about it." Zheng Haishan quickly interrupted his younger brother's excited words, watched Zhu Wannian's figure disappear into the corner of the street, and then turned around and walked into the courtyard.

Zheng Hailin also hurriedly followed, walked through the crowded front yard, and after entering the quiet backyard gate, he couldn't help but say to his brother again: "If the news from Lord Zhu is true, the price of grain will definitely plummet this year, so it's better for us to prepare early..."

Zheng Haishan, who seemed to be calm, turned his head and reprimanded his younger brother fiercely: "Do you only see the trivial matter that grain prices will fall this year?" Can't you see how much impact it will have if the Food Bureau were to plan the planting of overseas agriculture? Hurry up and inform the delegates that we will have a thorough discussion on this matter. ”

Zheng Hailin was stunned for a moment, and it took a long time before he replied in annoyance: "Why? This news of Lord Zhu is given to our Zheng family, why should it be spread so easily, my father would not agree if he knew. ”

Seeing such a stubborn brother, Zheng Haishan finally reprimanded angrily: "You elm head, don't you see the signboard of the association hanging on our side?" Lord Zhu is showing goodwill to the 188 grain merchants of the association, not to our Zheng family. With his identity, can we Zheng family drive it?

Just now, Master Zhu meant to ask the association to come up with a charter on this matter, so that he could compare it with the group of subordinates who were knocking on the Food Bureau, but they didn't come to sell news. If we cover up this matter and there is no movement in the association for two days, won't Master Zhu find someone else? At that time, we have not only offended Lord Zhu, but even the peers within the association, do you want my Zheng family grain store to be kicked out of the association? ”

In Zheng Haishan's shouting and scolding, Zheng Hailin finally ran out of the door with his head in his hands to inform those members of the association. What he didn't notice was that his brother was clenched with his fists, but he was actually very nervous.

For the Daming Grain Merchants Association, today is indeed a very unusual day. In the past three years, because of the quota system and the surplus grain collection system, many grain merchants have had to close their businesses and quit the grain trading business. And the grain merchants who have survived to this day are either large in their own right, or they have other businesses that subsidize the grain business.

It can be said that among the 188 grain merchants left in the grain association, the smallest of them can control the grain market of a province. As for the small and medium-sized grain merchants in the localities, they must be dependent on one of them in order to support their business.

When Zheng Haishan heard the news brought by Zhu Wannian, the first thing he thought of was not that grain prices were going to fall this year, but that the grain market in Daming was finally going to be opened for free trading, and they grain merchants had finally come to an end.

Although the imperial court has subsidized the price of grain and the transportation of grain for the past three years, the buying and selling under the fixed-price system is the biggest evil policy for merchants. In fact, it is true that the grain merchants have not made much money in the past three years, and it is a shame that the grain merchants have not made much money in such a large-scale and severe disaster year.

However, for the imperial court with swords, the complaints of the grain merchants are obviously insignificant, not to mention that the trading houses of the four seas also operate the grain business, and the imperial court does not have to worry about the grain merchants completely striking the market, anyway, there are people who can hold on first.

The most troublesome thing is that the imperial court also issued business licenses and capital registration systems to grain merchants, which means that if they do not obey the orders of the imperial court, their grain trading licenses will be revoked, and they will not be allowed to apply for grain trading licenses again for at least ten years. If the funds for buying and selling grain are far less than the registered capital of the grain banks, then their grain quotas will also be reduced to a corresponding amount, and they will lose a series of preferential policies and bank loan support.

It is precisely because of this series of measures issued by the imperial court that the Zheng family and more than 100 other grain stores have to support their business and wait for the arrival of a good year.

And the information from Zhu Wannian made Zheng Haishan realize that the hope they were waiting for had finally arrived, and even the opportunity given by reality was greater than what they expected. After all, if the imperial court implements the plan of separating grain production areas from cash crop production areas overseas, then grain will become the hard currency of those cash crop producing areas, and those subject countries will not be able to threaten them with force. As long as they wished, they could use grain to earn all the wealth of these overseas subjects into their own pockets.

In this way, it has become the most urgent need to contact the association's peers to raise funds to buy land in the grain-producing areas, or to order the grain produced in these grain-producing areas. Zheng Haishan also planned that he should encourage his peers to invest in the establishment of a bank dedicated to lending to grain merchants, so that they would not have to give a piece of the pie to the hateful bankers.

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