Most of the officials of Daming County, who came to Shanghai for the meeting, did not know what to do, and the so-called Association for the Promotion of Industry and Commerce was actually not a yamen, but a "non-governmental organization", a "non-governmental organization" formed by Emperor Zhu out of his own pocket. Therefore, the expenses for entertaining more than 500 county officials this time were also paid by Emperor Zhu.

Perhaps in order to increase the interest of these county officials in "going out of the road", Emperor Zhu was extremely generous. It not only chartered the largest and most luxurious hotel on Shanghai Tang and more than a dozen other inns. After the first day of the meeting, these officials were organized to visit and inspect Shanghai, which was naturally a matter of good food, drink, and hospitality.

The first thing to visit is to arrange a visit to the factories on both sides of the Wusong River, at this time Shanghai has faintly had the signs of an important light industrial town, and the main ones gathered on the banks of the Wusong River are cotton mills, woolen mills, printing and dyeing factories, screw factories, garment factories, rice mills, flour mills, ash factories, match factories, soybean oil factories, paper mills and distilleries. These factories have the capital of foreign businessmen, as well as the capital of Chinese businessmen, and some of them are simply upgraded from traditional handicraft workshops. The technology is not advanced, the management is not much better, and the capital is not large, but most of the operations are very prosperous.

The reason is that it is the early stage of the "reform and opening up" of the Ming Dynasty, and it is the easiest time to get rich. Guangzhou and Shanghai were the special zones of later generations, and when other places were still intoxicated by the peaceful and prosperous era of feudalism, these two cities were already bathed in the spring breeze of reform. Of course, another reason is that the current Ming Dynasty has financial and tariff autonomy. The development of the financial sector makes it easy for industrial capital to raise funds, and the necessary tariff protection allows for adequate protection of nascent industries.

After some visits, the county officials were arranged to dine in the Bund branch of the Far Eastern Hotel—not at public expense, but with the emperor's treat. Zhu Jishi, the emperor, deserves a bit of a loss!

In one room it's a little ridiculously large. The restaurant is luxuriously decorated in a Western-style style. Dozens of tables of county officials pushed cups and changed lamps, drinking all kinds of fine wines, and at the same time making all kinds of comments about what they had seen and heard in the past few days.

"Look at Shanghai here, our Ming Dynasty really looks like a prosperous age, but think about our hometown, it's a little bleak!"

Ao Xinghuang said with his tongue open, and everyone nodded subconsciously. Not only is the hometown bleak, everyone's pockets are even more bleak! A county official only gets 960 silver dollars a year. Any nine-grade official here in Shanghai can have this number! It's not just the Jiupin officials in Shanghai who can make so much money, but the foreign bank staff here earn even more, and there are many people who get two hundred and three hundred a month!

"We will read the books of the sages, shepherd one side for the Son of Heaven, and develop the place for the benefit of the people!"

Suddenly, some people's hearts were surging, and they couldn't wait to rush back to their hometown immediately and start showing their skills.

"Developing local ...... It's not easy, right? I don't know how to deal with it......"

Someone seemed less confident and sighed so lowly.

"How blessed are the people here in Shanghai? The workers in the factory get up early and work late at night, working for six hours a day. The income is only a few dozen small copper plates, and it is only two silver dollars a month. After deducting rent, food and clothing, there is not much left. ”

Xu Yaoguang, a Qing official from Hunan, said in a deep voice that he was born in a poor family and came up from the imperial examination by studying hard, so he naturally knew the hardships of the people of Lu Dao. Now he is the commander of Changsha County, Changsha is not a poor county, in the past two years, under the promotion of Zuo Zongtang, Luo Zenan and other Xianghu bigwigs, there has also been a little industry, mainly machine rice mills. These rice mills, which also operated grain shops, relied on the low cost and abundant capital of machine rice milling to crush many traditional rice shops, and provoked the grain merchants in Changsha to petition the county government to close down these rice mills. But these rice mills all have shares of Xianghu bigwigs, how dare Xu Qingguan touch the tiger's buttocks? I could only watch one after another very old grain stores close down.

What made him even more uncomfortable was the impact of the "foreign cloth" from Guangdong on the native cloth of the province. Now the cloth shops in Changsha no longer go to the countryside to buy homespun cloth, and all the cloth they sell is foreign cloth shipped from Guangdong, which is not only cheaper than homespun cloth, but also has good quality......

"I don't know how many people have lost their livelihoods from the milled rice, white flour, and foreign cloth produced by these factories!"

Xu Yaoguang slapped the table and sighed with a three-point wine, which resonated immediately, and many county officials began to sigh again, complaining about the impact of "foreign goods" on the traditional industries of their hometown.

"Hmm...... They actually call the things produced in Shanghai and Guangzhou foreign goods? ”

While these poor county officials were complaining, Emperor Zhu was talking to his old friend Endashen in the palace of Chuansha.

"Friedrich, tell me how I can lead these people to the right path?"

Zhu Jishi smiled and looked at the great god in front of him, these days he is serving as a professor at Yingtian Jishi University, while inspecting the countryside in the south of the Yangtze River and studying the problems of rural China.

"If I'm not mistaken, do you want to direct the financial resources of the gentry of the world to industry and commerce, and at the same time want too many people from the Han land to move to the northeast and the South Seas?"

I can see it, the vision is not bad, what is the great god......

Zhu Jishi smiled and nodded, he stood up and took out a bottle of 1825 champagne from the wine cabinet next to him, and poured a glass for himself and Engels.

"Friedrich, do you know what I'm doing for and in such a hurry?" Zhu Jishi handed the wine glass to Engels, "I think you know what the answer is?" ”

Engels took a sip of the wine glass and said with a smile: "Is it Dutt wine?" The taste is very good. He paused, "Jason, I think you're facing a tough math problem right now, right?" ”

Zhu Jishi smiled bitterly: "Yes, it is very, very difficult to understand, eight to one percent per thousand, and it is even possible to reach a compound annual growth rate of one hundred and twenty percent, and the base is forty thousand, what will it be in twenty years, thirty years, or even fifty years?" ”

"Eight hundred million? Billion? Or...... More, right? Engels gently turned the wine glass in his hand, "This is not only a mathematical problem, but also a social science problem." In recent years, medicine has made rapid progress! ”

"What a shot in the foot!" Zhu Jishi took a big sip of champagne, "Friedrich, do you think I can not be in a hurry?" At present, China's population of a little more than 40,000 is not enough to eat, if it reaches 80,000 in the next 50 years...... My God! That would be an unimaginable disaster! ”

80,000 people may not seem like much in 21st-century China, but in 1900 it would have been that number......

After Zhu Jishi studied the household statistics of Guangzhou Mansion and Yingtianfu in 1849 and 1850, he suddenly felt a little uncomfortable. With the advent of the peaceful years, it seems that the population of Daming is about to usher in an explosive growth!

Even though Zhu Jishi's historical knowledge was not rich, he also knew that the 14-year Taiping War caused extremely serious population losses to China at that time. And this time and space, due to his butterfly effect, countless people who should have died in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement have survived, and are multiplying for the future of the Ming Dynasty.

And the production of food ...... There is no GMO technology right now, no high-yielding hybrid crops, not enough fertilizers, not enough pesticides, and probably not in 50 years. After all, 50 years later it will only be 1900. It is impossible to make China's agriculture reach the level of 1980 by relying on Zhu Jishi as a traveler, which is not only solved by a few goldfinger inventions, but the progress of the entire human industrial civilization cannot keep up.

After all, Zhu Jishi is just a doctor who traveled back in time, not a supercomputer that stores all the industrial and technological civilizations of mankind!

"There is a good chance that the population will double in the next 50 years! But it is very difficult to double the grain production, and even if it is doubled, I am afraid that it will not satisfy the 80,000 people! Zhu Jishi's tone had already relaxed, "Friedrich, do you know how much of a challenge I am facing now?" If I don't solve this puzzle in my lifetime, the dynasty I built will most likely collapse after my death. Therefore, every day from now on is very precious, and industry, agriculture, and immigration and territory cannot be pulled down. But my subjects were not in a hurry at all, and simply ignored my words! (To be continued......)