At the same time, the entire Yellow River basin is also facing the threat of locust plagues, and the amount of water in the Yellow River basin this year is not too sufficient, and the possibility of locust plagues is very large.

The reason for the locust plague is simple: the vegetation coverage is less than 50%, followed by dryness, warmth, and the number of locusts that like to live in groups when they are touched by their legs.

The peak period of locust plague in the Yellow River basin is February~June and July~September, and the first task of officials arriving in Huguang and Henan is to exterminate locusts.

The key areas for locust extermination are areas with less than 50% vegetation cover, i.e. tidal flats, low-lying bare areas, and farmland.

These areas are densely populated by locust spawning grounds, areas with high vegetation generally do not experience locust infestations of large scale, and in dry years, the soil becomes more solid and the water content decreases due to the drop in water levels. The number of eggs laid by locusts increases greatly, and it can reach 4000~5000 eggs per square meter of soil, and there are 50~80 eggs in each egg mass, that is, 200,000~400,000 eggs per square meter.

During the Qin and Han dynasties, locust plagues occurred once every 8.8 years, while in the Ming Dynasty, they occurred on average once every 2.3 years, and at the end of the Ming Dynasty, they occurred almost every year.

On the one hand, the vegetation has been destroyed, and the Henan region used to be a very good ecological area, but now many of the land in Henan has become very barren.

On the other hand, it is also due to the uncertain climate change and frequent droughts.

Drought causes locusts to multiply and grow rapidly, causing disasters in two ways. On the one hand, in dry years, the soil becomes more solid and the water content decreases due to the drop in water levels. At the same time, in dry years, the water surface of rivers and lakes shrinks, and the low-lying land is exposed, which also provides more suitable places for locusts to lay eggs. On the other hand, plants grown in arid environments have a lower water content, and locusts feed on them, growing faster and having higher fertility. On the contrary, rainy and humid conditions have many adverse effects on locust reproduction. The high water content of the plants that the locusts feed on will delay the growth of locusts and reduce their fertility, and the rainy and humid environment will also make locust epidemics, and rain and snow can also directly kill locust eggs. In addition, the increase in natural predators such as frogs will also increase the mortality rate of locusts.

These local officials were trained to fight locusts before taking office, and every county began to raise chickens in large quantities, except in January and February, when cattle and horses were used to plough deep areas with dense locust eggs.

On the one hand, the development of breeding industry is profitable, and at the same time, it is also very effective in exterminating locusts, and an average chicken can eat up 1.5 acres of locusts.

Once a locust plague occurs, it would be good for the counties to drive the chickens to the areas where the locusts are attacking, but the East Asian locusts in the Yellow River basin have always been a big problem, and they would have been eliminated long ago if they could have been so well eradicated.

After all, locusts are more mobile, and once the colony reaches a certain number, the locust swarm is likely to collectively fly in one direction for seven or eight hours.

The chicken herding method is not that no one has used it, but the limited surname is too big, and not all regions have large-scale chickens, and this time Henan and Huguang provincial officials before taking office, Zhao Yan gave them a hard surname index, each county must raise 300 ~ 5 million chickens within this year, and the Huguang area is a chicken and duck breeding, because there are more paddy fields in the Huguang area. Officials in each state and county must be vigilant in identifying areas where local locusts can lay eggs and control them before they grow into flying insects.

After all, before the locusts grow into flying insects, and for a period of time after they grow into flying insects (before they evolve into swarms), as long as they send people to inspect whether the locusts are too dense, timely prevention and control will not cause the spread of locust plagues.

It is not easy to say, that is, if any local official is negligent, once the density of locusts reaches a certain level and causes a change in the locust habit, and at the same time invades the territory of other locusts due to lack of food, it will cause the locust to spread, and then it will snowball, the locust team will roll bigger and bigger, and then sweep all the way.

In terms of post-spread control, when locusts invade a state or county, local officials must command locust exterminators to drive the chickens to exterminate the locusts.

The collection of chickens can start from two aspects, one is a government-run farm, the other is a private free-range, once the locust plague appears, the government can forcibly requisition, a chicken to 3 copper coins requisition fee, returned afterwards, lost then the original price compensation.

At the same time, local officials should begin to clean up bare land, tidal flats, and low-lying areas, and eradicate locust nesting grounds, mainly by restoring vegetation.

This is a local control measure, and the central control measure is to repair the Yellow River embankment to prevent the Yellow River from bursting or diverting its course, which will cause a large area to be abandoned, which will provide spawning grounds for East Asian locusts.

As soon as the newly appointed officials arrived in the locality, the first thing they did was to control the locusts, which was so positive that people were stunned, and before they took office, Zhao Yan let out cruel words, and whoever failed to manage it well was responsible.

At the same time, a locust eradication bureau has been set up, which is responsible for long-term observation of East Asian locusts in the Yellow River basin, and will warn local officials wherever locust activity occurs.

Some local officials simply ordered the people to catch locusts, and how much money was given for how many locusts were caught. Farmers are also hired to drive the chickens to areas where there are locusts but there is no disaster to eat for a few days, and the amount of money is calculated from the local treasury in advance.

The effect of locust control is very remarkable, and after entering March, there were basically no large-scale locust plagues in Hebei and Huguang areas, and they were all small-scale and were quickly extinguished.

Shanxi began to deal with the locust plague last year, and there is no trace of the locust plague this year. The locust plague in Hebei is hidden from time to time, and it is the place where the cabinet governs, and the intensity is not as strong as the political axe of Shandong, but it has also been effective.

At the beginning of the year, Shandong sent officials from four provinces, and the problems faced by Shaanxi were the most serious, but also the most relaxed.

All Shaanxi officials have to do is to maintain law and order, and at the same time repair water conservancy and organize production. In northern Shaanxi, the policy of returning farmland to forest and returning grazing land to grassland has been implemented.

Northern Shaanxi is a forced immigration area, and all the people in the mountainous areas have to move out and be arranged to the Guanzhong area, or to other areas.

Anyway, there are many areas that can resettle migrants now, and all of them can be developed into rich areas, and the ecologically fragile areas of northern Shaanxi have little future in agriculture. However, northern Shaanxi has great potential in terms of minerals and energy, but now is obviously not the time to exploit it.

Central Plains of Shaanxi Province. It is also known as the Weihe Plain and the Guanzhong Basin. It starts from Baoji in the west, reaches Tongguan in the east, borders the Qinling Mountains in the south, and connects the north mountain of Weihe River in the north. It is narrow in the west and wide in the east, about 300 kilometers long from east to west, about 400 meters above sea level, high in the west and low in the east, and drops to 340 meters in the riverbed of the Yellow River. It is formed by fault depression, commonly known as the Wei River graben, and alluvial into a plain through the Wei River, Jing River and Luo River. The terrain is flat, the soil is fertile, the climate is warm, and the irrigated agriculture has been famous since ancient times, known as the 'Eight Hundred Miles of Qinchuan'. It is rich in wheat and cotton.

Guanzhong is the essence of Shaanxi, where nearly 60 million acres of cultivated land can be developed, and the Guanzhong area at this time can be described as a desolation.

In the past, it was said that this was a densely populated area, but most of the people were moved out by Zhao Yan, and the labor force in Guanzhong was very insufficient.

And most of the land in the Guanzhong area was encircled by Zhao Quan. In the past few years, the Guanzhong area was desolate, and the price of land was so cheap that the Ministry of Commerce naturally began to enclose land on a large scale.

The Guanzhong area is an important area for the resumption of production in Shaanxi, and because the labor force is not enough, the aquaculture industry is directly developed in the Guanzhong area.

It is very suitable for the development of aquaculture in the Guanzhong area, and there is no need for population and land adjustment. As soon as the officials dispatched by the Shandong political axe arrived this year, they immediately began to organize the repair of water conservancy, and began to build breeding farms and silage rooms everywhere, and organized personnel to sow a large area of corn and planted a large area of alfalfa and other pastures.

Southern Shaanxi is a very good ecological environment area, agriculture is developed in Hanzhong, Hanzhong is also in the sequence of developing aquaculture, and at the same time, there is a large area in Shaanxi that has been set aside to grow cotton. After the arrival of Shandong officials, law and order in Shaanxi quickly stabilized, and production began to recover.

Shaanxi's governance is still very simple, but it is obviously not so easy to recover quickly.

In the three provinces of Sichuan, Huguang and Hebei, there are many problems.

The main problem was the land, and the number of landlords in the area, as well as the feudal kings who were super landlords.

This makes it difficult for local officials to carry out their work.

Zhao Yan always paid attention to the situation in the provinces in Zhaojiabao, and in March, he felt that the time was ripe, so he held a meeting in Shaanxi, Sichuan, Huguang, and Henan to implement the Shandong Agricultural Tax Bill.

"If this bill is implemented, although yeoman farmers are exempt from taxes, those landlords will pay taxes, and the agricultural tax will definitely skyrocket, and it will definitely not be less than what the imperial court collected in the past." Zhao Quan predicted, "According to the data reported by various states and counties, Sichuan has 100 million mu of cultivated land, according to 5 cents of silver per mu, Sichuan can collect 5 million taels of silver dollars in agricultural tax, Huguang can develop 100 million mu of cultivated land, and more than 5 million taels can also be collected, and Henan has 90 million mu of cultivated land, which can collect more than 4.5 million taels of agricultural tax." Shaanxi's cultivated land is about 80 million mu, and the agricultural tax can also reach more than 4 million taels of silver, and together, as long as the province's agriculture can be restored, the agricultural tax can reach nearly 20 million taels of silver. Zhang Buyun said at the meeting, "So agricultural tax reform is imperative." ”

"It is indeed imperative, but I personally think that it should be slowed down, at this time the production of the provinces has not fully recovered, if this is a shock adjustment, then this year's overall agricultural production will inevitably be affected." Tang Zhengze did not approve of the immediate reform of the agricultural tax.

"Shock adjustment is inevitable, this year's agricultural production is not urgent, if we wait for the agricultural production of these four provinces to resume and then carry out shock adjustment, those landlords will not be more resistant." Zhang Buyun said.

"But it's not enough insurance, who will be responsible if there is a famine this year?" Tang Zhengze got up and asked.

"I'm in charge." Zhao Yan said suddenly, Tang Zhengze suddenly became dumbfounded, Zhao Yan got up and said: "This year we must promulgate an agricultural tax reform bill, and we must eliminate the problem of land annexation in the four provinces within next year." ”

"Yes." The crowd responded.

"I believe that this year's agricultural production will not be a problem." Zhao Yan said loudly: "Although our Shandong is no longer a grain-producing area, our agriculture in the northeast has begun to take shape, and it will definitely be able to withstand the grain supply of Shandong in previous years." Although agriculture in the provinces has been affected, we will be able to recover quickly by vigorously repairing water conservancy, and land regulation and control in these four provinces can be carried out freely. ”

"My lord, the situation of these four provinces is different, and my subordinates feel that the same agricultural tax should not be applied, and at the same time, land regulation and control methods should not be carried out in a single way." Tang Zhengze said.

"Hmmm! You are negotiating the tax amount, you can be flexible, but it must be in line with the actual local situation, as for the regulation and control method, except for Sichuan, other provinces can use this method. Zhao Yan said.

Zhang Buyun asked puzzledly: "Lord, why does Sichuan use other control methods?" ”

"The Sichuan vassal king occupies too much land, and it should be forcibly confiscated." Zhao Yan said loudly at the meeting: "There has never been a dynasty, like the Ming Dynasty, the vassal king encroached on so much land, for this reason, we must stop this phenomenon, confiscate the vassal king's land, and then distribute it to the people." ”

"Yes, my lord."

Everyone rose to the top.

"End of meeting." Zhao Yan nodded.

At the meeting, he demanded the confiscation of the vassal king's land, which was the final showdown with Chongzhen.

He didn't want to drag it out any longer, although Chongzhen couldn't make any big waves, but he did have 300,000 soldiers and horses in his hands, and at this time, the landlord class of Daming had been united to Chongzhen's side.

Chongzhen dared to train 300,000 soldiers and horses, all because of the support of those landlords, and those landlords were determined by Zhao Yan to get rid of, and the vassal kings are currently one of Chongzhen's great helps.

Those vassal kings realized that the end of the royal family might not be far away, and they were crying poor when they usually suppressed thieves and built captives, but at this moment they were making generous moves.

At this point, it is necessary to use an iron fist.

…… On 13 March, the Shandong government announced the implementation of agricultural tax reform in the four provinces of Shaanxi, Sichuan, Huguang, and Henan.

Everyone in the world knows that the cabinet is just a show for General Jianwei Zhao Yan.

It's just that the cabinet also controls the administrative power of many provinces in the Ming Dynasty, and the Shandong political axe also controls many provinces, but most of them are fought by the Shandong army.

Last year, Shandong political axe only controlled Liaodong, Shanxi, Handan, Yingzhou region, and this year, Shandong political axe swallowed four provinces in one go.

Henan, Huguang, Sichuan, and Shaanxi, these four provinces, as soon as they enter the administrative management of Shandong Zhengaxe, it means that Shandong Zhengaxe will not ask the cabinet about the government affairs of these four provinces.

Shandong political axe in the provinces that do not control the administration to achieve a certain purpose, are done through remote control of the cabinet, but once they control the administrative power, Shandong political axe no longer intervenes in the cabinet, all government orders are issued by Shandong political axe, all local officials are to Shandong political axe to report the situation.

What is shocking is that the Shandong political axe did not take into account the feelings of the landlords in the Ming provinces, and promulgated the agricultural tax reform law, which was more severe.

The new agricultural tax reform law has lowered the bottom line of 500 mu to .300 mu, and those who exceed 300 mu will have the tax directly soaring to two dollars per mu.

If it is in the Huguang area, the tax of two dollars of silver per mu, and some business surnames, but the profit is minimal, and the higher the number of acres, the higher the tax.

In terms of tax-exempt acres, it was reduced to ten acres. After all, if fifty acres are exempt from taxes, you can quickly become a rich peasant.

After a long discussion, it was decided not to implement such a policy in other provinces, so as to avoid the landlords from playing tricks and at the same time to avoid the emergence of more new landlords.

First of all, when the agricultural tax is introduced, it will inevitably lead to a sharp drop in the price of land, and those who do not have land will inevitably use this opportunity to buy land within the tolerable limits.

The original intention of implementing the Agricultural Tax Reform Law is, first, to change the current situation of agricultural tax loss and eliminate tax-exempt groups. The second is to cultivate a new landlord class.

This new landlord class can have a higher land ceiling, and the tolerable limit of land in China is 500 mu, but this needs to go to the Ministry of Agriculture to obtain a breeding license, and in order to obtain a breeding license, first of all, there must be no stain, and it is best to have good moral character.

You can't be a hostile class of Shandong political axe, and you can't be the family of those who have committed serious crimes, and secondly, you must go through professional training, and it's best to have a little culture.

Because of these two original intentions, the number of tax-free acres was reduced to ten acres. Generally speaking, ten acres of land that does not require tax payment can support a yeoman farmer. But if you want to get rich, you still have to rely on immigration or entering the city as a worker, and there will be absolutely no threshold for immigration and entering the city, let alone any household registration restrictions.

Most of the land in these provinces will be used for the development of aquaculture and the cultivation of cash crops.

As soon as this decree was announced, it caused an uproar.

If Zhao Yan's implementation of the agricultural tax reform law in Shandong only aroused the vigilance of the landlord class, Zhao Yan's actions at this time had already aroused their hatred.

Moreover, it should not be regarded as the landlord class, as well as those civil servants in the court, and those literati who were promoted, and the scope of offense is far more than this.

To say how many people Zhao Yan has offended.

Excluding the groups that have already fallen to the political axe of Shandong, as soon as Zhao Yan promulgated the agricultural tax reform bills in Shaanxi, Huguang, Sichuan, and Henan, he directly offended the entire upper class.

Zhao Yan's approach has seriously shaken the interests of all upper classes.

The rule of the Ming Dynasty was not so much the emperor's world, but the world of those upper classes, although the emperor had supreme power, he was still a puppet.

At this time, Zhao Yan offended the entire upper class of the Ming Dynasty.

It's just that Zhao Yan is no longer the cautious Zhao Yan he was at the beginning. At the beginning, Zhao Yan tried his best to avoid offending the landlord class of the Ming Dynasty, but at this time Zhao Yan was fearless.

His army will stand by his side, and his people will stand by his side.

When the whole Daming was in a mess, Zhao Yan was very calm and hugged the child at home, and Xiao Zhao Wan was very healthy, which made Zhao Yan very happy.

(To be continued)