The river is gentle and flows slowly. The Yellow River, which had been frozen for months, finally began to thaw in late February, starting with the downstream section of the river flowing through Shandong, where the river slowly flowed with ice floes to the Bohai Bay.

On the south bank of the Yellow River outside Jinan, Zhu Jishi, wearing a cotton robe made of bright yellow fabric, was taking a group of people who looked like Ming civil and military officials walking by the river. Behind is a large group of guards. The fields on both sides of the Yellow River are still barren, and there is no human population except for the officers and soldiers on patrol. The rich plains, where the past were full of chickens and dogs, are now almost as desolate as the grasslands outside the Saiwai.

Zhu Jishi arrived in Jinan only two days ago, and the battle of Henan has come to an end, although Kaifeng, Luoyang, Xuchang, Xiangyang and other places have not yet been recovered. But the latest news came that the Taiping army in those places had begun to retreat one after another. As long as the Ming army waits patiently, they will be able to regain these territories. Therefore, under the escort of the guards of the First Division, Zhu Datianzi first personally operated on Lin Zexu to treat hernia, and then summoned Lin Zexu, Zeng Guofan, Miao Peilin and others to listen to their suggestions on stabilizing the situation in the Central Plains.

Although he is a traverser, Zhu Datianzi is not the kind of all-rounder who knows everything and can do anything. Of course, he has more than 100 years of knowledge ahead of science, and he is also good at managing financial management. However, military and political talents can only be described as mediocre, and they do not know much about China's national conditions in the mid-19th century, so they can get to this point today, probably because they are good at listening to the opinions of the ancients.

Today, however, he went out of the city to visit, thinking about the people's situation and inspecting the embankment of the Yellow River. But all I saw was a barren and populated Yellow River beach.

He walked slowly by the river. Bow your head and put your hands behind your back thoughtfully. All I could think of was the scene of a few still populated villages that I had just inspected. If you want to describe that scene in one word, it is undoubtedly "poor"! He was so poor, so poor that he couldn't eat at all, and he didn't know what was boiling on the stove, it seemed to be a mixture of moss, wild herbs, and earth! Everyone I saw was skinny, and there was no trace of blood and vitality on their faces, and some were just numb. The clothes on his body were all torn, and they were already rotten. Compared with Jinan, the poor in Jiangnan and Guangdong seem to have come out of heaven, but they are still too poor, and I am afraid that there will be problems in the long run......

Military advisor Luo Zenan came to Zhu Jishi's side and said in a low voice: "Your Majesty, the war disaster in the Central Plains has been extinguished, as long as Yu Min rests, he will recover in a few years." The top priority now is to mobilize rice and grain from Jiangnan to help the victims, as long as the people can stutter. This pass can always be passed, and it will definitely get better in the future. ”

Zhu Jishi squinted at Luo Zenan. said lightly: "Strategist, do you really think so?" As long as you are at this level in front of you, there will be nothing to do in the future? ”

Luo Zenan was stunned when he heard this, his brows gradually twisted, he now knew that Zhu Jishi was not worried because of the current situation - although Emperor Zhu was not brutal, he was not a "benevolent" who could not see the people starving to death, and he would not be unable to eat and sleep for the famine in front of him in the Central Plains. As Luo Zenan said, mobilize rice and grain from the south of the Yangtze River to help the victims, so that the people can stutter, and the current pass can be passed, even if some people starve to death is really nothing great, when will no one starve to death in the current Ming Dynasty?

"Your Majesty, why are you bothered?" Luo Zenan asked.

Zhu Jishi smiled deeply: "I'm not worried about the famine right now, there are 40,000 people in the Ming Dynasty, or it's nothing if I starve to death for tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands!" I am not afraid of the people's changes...... The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has been defeated, and the people are not suppressed at any time? What I am worried about is that after the world is peaceful in the future, I now have 40,000 people, and there are already many people and few land, and there are poor people everywhere. In the future, after these people multiply to 80,000,000 or 100,000,000, I or my descendants will be very troubled. ”

"Not so much." Luo Zenan's complexion is also difficult to look at, "Now the land in the Guannai can feed 40,000 people is already the limit, if you want more, ......"

"Will you starve to death? Now it's the limit, that's why the people are so poor! Will you continue to be poor like this in the future? ”

Zhu Jishi lowered his voice, "Now that the Ming Dynasty is here, and the people's wisdom has not been greatly opened, naturally I am not afraid." But in the future, if I am gone, and the people's wisdom is open again, I am afraid that there will be a second or third Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, right? ”

"What does the emperor mean ......" Luo Zenan looked at Zhu Jishi in confusion, and he really didn't understand what the emperor's majesty was thinking? Since moving the capital to Yingtian, Zhu Jishi's mind has become more and more elusive.

Zhu Jishi sighed, and seemed to vomit a little depression in his chest. It's just that the melancholy in his eyes can't fade away: "Now the basic territory of our Han people is similar to that of Emperor Taizu, that is, the eighteen provinces of Guannai...... In 500 years, the population has increased from 60 million to 40,000, but the territory has not increased much. And the more the population, the higher the land rent, the more concentrated the land, at least half of the people of the world have no land, can the world be stable for a long time? ”

Zhu Jishi knew that the solution of a certain party in later generations when faced with the problem of more people and less land was to "divide the land equally", but then he made a big move of collectivization, which lasted for nearly 30 years, and finally ended in failure. Fortunately, the end of the 1970s was already an era of industrialization and relatively free trade, and industry and exports could be relied on to solve the surplus labor force and obtain sufficient food. However, in this era, the world trade was not developed, and China simply did not have the means to obtain enough agricultural products by exporting industrial products. Moreover, the Ming Dynasty overthrew the Manchu Qing Dynasty, expelled the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and ruled the most concentrated areas of Chinese population in just a few years of war, and in the foreseeable future, under a relatively stable social environment, China's population growth rate will be faster than in history! The population peak will also come earlier – and while the population will not grow indefinitely as urbanization increases, it will certainly be much larger in the next 50 or even 100 years than it has been in history!

However, the trade and agricultural skills of the whole world will not be significantly improved by their own arrival, although their knowledge of chemistry and biology can theoretically bring a technological revolution to this world. However, China's backward industry and modern education have determined that China has no way to digest the advanced technology mastered by Zhu Jishi. If he makes his knowledge of chemistry and biology public too early, the consequence is likely to further widen the gap between China and the world's advanced industrial countries. Moreover, Zhu Jishi also knew that most advanced theories or techniques would be used first in military rather than industrial and agricultural production......

"Strategist, there is only one way out for our Ming Dynasty, which is to follow the example of Western powers to colonize foreign countries!"

Zhu Jishi stopped and walked towards the Yellow River, which was rolling eastward, as if he was saying to himself: "You can't completely follow the Western Ocean...... The colonization process of the Western powers was too slow, and their domestic population was not very excessive, not so much colonization, but rather the enclosure of the Manchurian realm, and there were not many people who really colonized the country. And the Ming Dynasty must really colonize the people, only in this way can the country be able to maintain long-term peace and stability. But how do you get rid of the people? This is not an easy task, because there is no truly ownerless land in the world! The process of our foreign colonization is a ...... for others The process of perdition! This process cannot be expected to be completed without bloodshed at all, colonization is tantamount to a long conquest! Therefore, every young and strong colonist must always take up arms to fight! All the pioneers of the Ming Dynasty should support each other and fight together, only in this way can they truly survive in a foreign land and survive well. ”

He suddenly turned his head and looked at Luo Zenan: "Strategist, I feel that many of the provisions in the Heavenly Dynasty Tianmu System can be used for reference, but not for the interior, but for colonial development - colonial exploration in certain directions. The common people we sent there should be organized in the mode of militarization and collectivization, and they should also be army and civilian, and they should work and fight together" (to be continued............