Chapter 505: Natural and Man-made Disasters
The emergence of chemical fertilizers, phosphate fertilizers and potassium fertilizers has alleviated the problem of insufficient organic fertilizer, and because it is targeted fertilization, the growth and production of crops have been greatly improved. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info
Don't underestimate the doubling of this yield per mu, that is an immeasurable achievement. In the land of the two roads, especially after the destruction of the "Xichengsuo" and the Song River, the grain production here has reached a record low, and if it is not restored in time, it will bring more serious disasters.
Gao Feng even remembered that in the second and third years after the Songjiang Uprising was quelled, that is, in the fourth and fifth years of Xuanhe, many places in Jingdong, Hebei, and Huainan would suffer from severe drought.
This great hunger is not only the reason of God, but also the reason why the war did not recover in time, and the most serious victim is the Jingdong two roads, the weight of the harm, when it can be said to be thousands of miles of red land, starvation all over the wilderness, a very miserable scene, and this is also another manifestation of Xuanhe discord.
Seven years after Xuanhe, if you want to say that good things are going on, it should be three years of Xuanhe. In this year, Song Jiang and Fang La were pacified successively, ending the domestic turmoil. In order to quickly quell these two rebellions, the emperor issued an edict of guilt, announcing the dismissal of the Suzhou and Hangzhou Yingfeng Bureau, the Creation Bureau and the Huashi Gang, and at the same time dismissing Zhu Mian's father and son and relatives from their positions.
Another piece of good news is the death of Yang Jian, the founder of the "Xicheng Kutian Institute", leaving this method of harming the people leaderless.
The good omen of the three years of Xuanhe gave hope to the people and those officials who had ideas, and they thought that the country would really settle down slowly from now on, and life would slowly stabilize.
But in the fourth year of Xuanhe, the fickle Zhao Ji was not at ease again, he saw that the world was stable, so he returned to his nature, first restored the position of Zhu Mian and his party, and also restored the Ying Feng Bureau, which is the meaning of re-running Huashigang. In addition, he also asked the eunuch Li Yan to preside over the matter of the Kutian Institute, and Li Yan colluded with Liang Shicheng, and the methods were more vicious, and the exploitation of people was more serious.
This kind of man-made hazard reared up again, and then natural disasters followed, from Hebei to Huainan, the entire Huanghuai region was seriously violated, and it has lasted for more than a year.
Historically, since the peak has come here, it is natural that it cannot be repeated. He hurriedly implemented the development strategy, and even more anxiously restored social order, and even did not hesitate to use his housekeeping skills to increase grain production, just to change that painful history and save some people.
Fortunately, this time, at Wang Hao's suggestion, Zhao Ji reinstated Zhu Mian and his party, and also restored the Ying Feng Bureau, including Hua Shigang, who also began to procure, but the action was much smaller, and even some things that disturbed the people did not dare to come out openly.
In addition, there is also a difference in Zhao Ji's appointment of the eunuch Li Yan to preside over the Kutian Institute, this time the Kutian Institute no longer includes the Jingdong two roads, but bypasses the two roads in Hebei and Huainan implementation, so that the Jingdong two roads in the center have been spared by the benefit of development.
Gao Feng is too lazy to take care of other things, and he has no ability to take care of them, but since he has to manage two ways, he has to manage it well, especially when the catastrophe is coming, he must be fully prepared. Gao Feng believes that if Jingdong and the two roads have the ability to face the next drought and famine, it will undoubtedly be a help to Hebei and Huainan.
The catastrophe is caused by nothing more than two reasons, one is God's problem. This is an era of relying on the sky to eat, if the wind and rain are good, everyone can still produce more food, although most of them are still very poor, but at least they can eat a full stomach, but once the sky changes its face, or waterlogging or drought, it will make the people unable to continue, they have not yet the ability to resist natural disasters.
The other is the issue of the government. The government has unlimited cuts, and in addition to some nominal excesses and miscellaneous taxes, there are more shady methods, which makes the people unable to make ends meet, and some even have higher debts, so they have to sell their children and daughters.
If the two work together, then the people will not think about their lives, and they will have to starve to death if they are not forced to die. Gaofeng's main task at present is to solve this problem.
Therefore, in his plan for exchanges with the imperial court, he proposed some things to reduce the burden on the peasants. First of all, it is necessary to unify taxation and reduce or exempt those chaotic tax systems, and in addition to collecting a uniform agricultural tax of 30 and 1 tax from the peasants, the land rent of those tenant households renting land must not exceed the standard of 37.
In fact, Gao Feng is more inclined to the 28 standard, but this may be unacceptable to those big landlords, and if they resist, the development strategy will have to flow to the situation sooner or later, and Gao Feng decides that this matter must be done slowly.
In addition to reducing the burden on the peasants, it is also necessary to increase the peasants' income, including increasing the utilization rate of land and enabling the peasants to build more grain; Arrange for farmers to work in their spare time to earn money and have an extra income.
In this way, the local farmers can basically settle down, and they will have a surplus of grain produced, and at this time, Gao Feng buys grain from the farmers by purchasing it, which is his spare grain.
Although there is no good way to deal with natural disasters, vigorously building water conservancy is indeed an inevitable measure.
The two roads in Jingdong were originally rivers that were vertical and horizontal, and making good use of these rivers was the primary task of building water conservancy, so Gao Feng called on all localities to concentrate on building water conservancy in winter.
As for the money needed to repair the water conservancy, Gao Feng asked the banks in various localities to make an assessment and give appropriate loans, and at the same time, he also asked the government to raise funds from the private sector, so as to alleviate the temporary shortage of funds.
In this way, under the guidance of Gao Feng, Jingdong and Lianglu soon showed a vigorous development momentum, and people rushed to work, and their hands gradually became richer.
In this way, there were two scenes in the Great Song Dynasty at once, on the one hand, some officials under the instruction of the imperial court constantly exploited the local people, making the people in dire straits. On the other side is Jingdong Two Road, where the people live smoothly and work at ease, as if they have a sense of paradise.
Not to mention that Zhao Ji is a faint king, not only that, but he is also very coarse, and there are two extremes in a country, one is good and one is poor, one is rich and one is poor, which causes a huge contrast.
The result of the contrast is not a trivial matter, it will increase the instability and, more importantly, the potential for large migrations due to profits.
Naturally, the minister pointed out this matter to Zhao Ji, but he didn't care, he was convinced of Gao Feng to the bones, and he would fight back all those remarks that might have an impact on Gao Feng.
Besides, he also has a point: his own people can't be maintained, and he blames others, so what's the use of having such an official?
Such a strange statement can only be said by Zhao Ji.