Eight years of the Apocalypse, early spring!

The Tokugawa shogunate in Japan received a shocking news that the Sendai Domain and the Ming Kingdom were in trade, and it was an open trade, and the volume of trade was still very large.

Tokugawa Hidetada was furious and immediately sent troops to attack.

The reason why Japan wanted to close itself off from the rest of the world was to isolate an environment in which only the Tokugawa shogunate could trade with the outside world, so as to obtain a monopoly on external resources, and to make huge profits by reselling imported goods, so as to strengthen itself and continue to suppress those local daimyos.

The Sendai Domain dared to trade with the Ming Dynasty, which had already touched the bottom line, and if the Sendai Domain was not eliminated as soon as possible, the consequences would be unimaginable.

A war broke out quickly, and the two sides quickly pinched each other.

It's just that after the Tokugawa shogunate sent troops to attack the Sendai Domain, it quickly hit a big bag, and the troops of the Sendai Domain sacrificed a large number of artillery, which directly bombarded the shogunate army to the ground. Then the Sendai Domain pursued the victory and defeated the shogunate army.

After the failure of the shogunate's army to attack the Sendai Domain, the Sendai Domain began to negotiate and trade with the Ming Dynasty more openly, completely disobeying the orders of the shogunate, and Japan, which had just been unified for a few years, was divided again.

This time, the shogunate had nothing to do with the Sendai Domain, as long as they were not blind, they could see that the Ming Dynasty was supporting the Sendai Domain behind their backs, otherwise how could the Sendai Domain get so many artillery, which had never been sold to the Tokugawa Shogunate.

The Tokugawa shogunate, having straightened out its thinking, immediately sent envoys to protest against the Ming Dynasty's violation of the agreement and trade with the Japanese local daimyos. As a result, the Ming side accused Japan of setting up trade barriers and restricting the outflow of precious metals, which seriously hindered free trade.

"We trade with the Sendai Domain. It was because the Sendai clan was willing to trade freely with the Ming Dynasty. If your shogunate can't open the market. Let's let Daming trade freely in Japan. Then the Tokugawa shogunate may not have any need to exist. The threat in the words of the envoy on the Ming side was full of meaning, which made the shogunate envoy angry on the spot.

The Tokugawa shogunate was clearly unwilling to compromise with the Ming Dynasty on the position of completely opening up the Japanese market, and immediately after the failure of the first attack on the Sendai Domain, it immediately transferred troops from various places and fought the Sendai Domain again, and a long and anxious tug-of-war was staged.

Naturally, the strength of the Sendai Domain could not compete with that of the Tokugawa Shogunate, which was not only the most powerful daimyo but was also able to gather a large number of daimyo to fight against it. The number of troops was more than ten times that of the Sendai Domain.

However, behind the Sendai Domain, there is the Ming Dynasty supporting them, and it is called a fair and upright, and the flintlock muskets are supported by the Sendai Domain, so that the Sendai Domain can quickly form batches of infantry by relying on these flintlock muskets, and the artillery is supporting a large number of past, and the Beiyang Fleet is also sent to cooperate with the Sendai Domain.

When the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Sendai Domain were fighting fiercely, the two powerful domains of the Satsuma Domain and the Kaga Domain suddenly reversed, and for a time the rule of the Tokugawa Shogunate was simply on fire everywhere.

There is no doubt that both the Satsuma Domain and the Kaga Domain have the support of the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty has the support of the Ming Dynasty behind them. One by one, the rebellion of the shogunate was very active.

The three most powerful foreign daimyo suddenly reversed, and they were openly supported by the Ming Dynasty. This was a great threat to the Tokugawa shogunate.

Tokugawa Hidetada is very popular, but it still means that.

Repression!

Resolutely suppress!

He knew that if he only had to take one step back now, he would have to take many steps back in the future, and it would be easy to push the situation into a state that was difficult to turn around.

Now, if these foreign names can be suppressed, the problem will be much smaller.

Japan soon became chaotic, and under the fanning of the Ming Dynasty, the flames of war burned again. Tokugawa Hidetada's intention to attack Hokkaido was also stillborn because of the rebellion of three foreign daimyos. The trade between the Tokugawa shogunate and the Ming Dynasty was also completely stopped, and at this time, the Ming was not afraid that the Tokugawa shogunate would not bow its head.

……

In northern Shaanxi, there has not been a single rain since the beginning of the year, and a drought has come as Zhu Youxiao expected, this drought is very serious, the degree of drought has not been encountered in a century, or it has occurred on the Loess Plateau, where the ability to resist disasters itself is relatively weak.

When the drought occurred, Shaanxi was already included in the scope of the New Deal reforms.

First of all, the imperial court ordered the opening of the strategic reserve warehouse, and at the same time promulgated the cash-for-work policy, as well as various policies to encourage immigration, so as to transfer the population of northern Shaanxi.

Under the cash-for-work policy, it is clear that people will not die of starvation. For those who have little ability to work, they will be given directly to the charity.

In the eighth year of the Apocalypse, the entire north was included in the New Deal system, and a large number of construction activities also provided enough jobs. Whether these victims are moving to cities and towns, migrating to the Western Regions, or temporarily relocating, they do not have to worry about finding work.

In the process of organizing the outflow of the population, the imperial court also sent troops to maintain order and provided many vehicles for transportation.

The entire rural population in northern Shaanxi left the countryside to work on various construction sites, and this time the imperial court directly moved out of northern Shaanxi with millions of people.

Of course, it is impossible to relocate all the people, but there are still people in the towns and cities of northern Shaanxi, and the food supply is also guaranteed. When the drought is over, some of the rural population will return.

The problem of a drought was quickly resolved, and under the rapid response of the imperial court, there were no problems at all.

Especially for those border troops, in the eighth year of the Apocalypse, the last batch of demobilized resettlement has also begun to be implemented, and the military households on the nine sides have completely become history and no longer exist.

Historically, a large number of thieves in northern Shaanxi would be made in the first year of Chongzhen, mainly because the imperial court embezzled military salaries and did not guarantee the border army. The border army took the lead in robbery, and civilian production was completely chaotic. In addition, the defeated soldiers who participated in the Battle of Sarhu in the early years fell into the grass and drove the hungry people to loot the towns, so the thieves became more and more fierce.

Later, Chongzhen made a foolish move under the flickering of the Donglin Party, and the more he suppressed, the more chaotic he became, so that he later lost the support of the people, and the thieves became a peasant army in a certain sense.

Now that there is no border army, the thieves in northern Shaanxi have also been exterminated by Zhu Youxiao. In recent years, the imperial court has focused on clearing these thieves with military qualities. Once these thieves encounter a disaster. They will coerce the hungry people to plunder everywhere. The harm is too great.

In order to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, Zhu Youxiao took advantage of the fact that there was no natural disaster to completely wipe out those thieves in northern Shaanxi.

Early that morning, as soon as Zhu Youxiao arrived at the court, he asked about the progress of the disaster relief work.

"Your Majesty, the disaster relief work has been implemented, and the local government and the personnel appointed by the imperial court are doing their best to ensure the resettlement of the victims, and the current situation is very stable, and no people have died of starvation." Officials from the Ministry of Civil Affairs came out to report.

"Hmm!" Zhu Youxiao nodded with satisfaction. Then he instructed: "It just so happens that there are many people in the disaster now, and the water conservancy projects in Shaanxi and Gansu provinces should be repaired in a key way." ”

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Among the current construction activities, water conservancy construction is a very important project. After all, more and more people will be 'liberated' from the land, and it is very necessary to improve agricultural productivity, water conservancy facilities can not only improve agricultural productivity, but also enhance disaster resistance.

The comprehensive repair of water conservancy is also a key project of reform.

Once the water conservancy facilities in the northern provinces have been repaired. Then the problems in agriculture are basically solved.

"Your Majesty, the scheduled date for the general examination and civil service examination is approaching. Will it be implemented? The Ministry of Rites Shangshu came to Zongdao and asked Zhu Youxiao.

"Open the course as planned." Zhu Youxiao nodded and said, the imperial examination and the civil service examination will be held together this year, and the imperial court really needs a lot of new blood injection.

This imperial examination is also a weight for Zhu Youxiao to stabilize the mood of the landlord class, and if he does not open the examination to obtain scholars, it is estimated that those landlord classes will make trouble.

The pure landlord class in the south is still waiting and seeing, and the reform will not change them for a while anyway, and the sky is falling on top of the tall ones.

The landlords in the northern provinces are now being forced to do so, and after announcing that Shaanxi and Gansu would be included in the scope of reform at the beginning of the year, the landlords in the north can no longer collect rents at home comfortably with their feet crossed. Nowadays, land rents are very low, and there is no future for rent collection.

In addition, after the development of industry, some tenant farmers were reluctant to do it. It is much more profitable to work in the towns than to work as tenants for these landlords.

On the contrary, some landlords have now made good profits by running agricultural companies in a down-to-earth manner. In particular, those landlords who grow cash crops have made a lot of money.

In fact, the reforms in the northern provinces did not shake the interests of these landlords so much. It was just for them to gather their land and set up an agricultural company, so as to achieve the purpose of the enclosure movement, and collect an agricultural tax.

Land is gathered in the hands of a large number of people, such a gap between the rich and the poor is still a big social problem, the state-owned capital consortium is now also annexing a large number of land, the enclosure movement continues, capital is the game of big fish eating small fish, these landlords have set up agricultural companies for capitalization, it is not difficult for the state-owned capital consortium to annex these lands.

However, for the imperial court, after the comprehensive reform of the north, there will definitely be a substantial increase in agricultural taxes, and the tax-free class can no longer be exempt from taxes.

At the same time, there will be a significant increase in business tax, as it is now fully charged in the northern provinces.

The provinces included in the New Deal area have also used paper money, and bank outlets have been fully laid in the northern region, completely replacing the old money banks.

The improvement of the banking system has made business more convenient. The biggest benefit is naturally the state-owned capital consortium, because the state-owned capital consortium can obtain a large number of low-interest loans, and the cost of obtaining funds is relatively low.

A large amount of investment activities have rapidly stimulated the economy of the eight years of the Apocalypse, and investment will produce a multiplier of economic growth, which is usually multiplied several times, and usually after the marginal consumption is reduced, the multiplier that investment can drive is getting lower and lower. The provinces have just begun to reform, and the people have a huge market demand, and the economic growth driven by this investment is very considerable.

The marginal consumption of Beizhili is the lowest, because the implementation of the new policy has also been the longest, and the consumption of many ordinary people has been satisfied, and the marginal consumption is lower. However, the economic growth rate in the eight years of the apocalypse is very impressive, because the steam engine has driven the development of the textile industry and various industries.

The machine factory's current steam engine orders are scheduled for next year, and the commercial benefits of high-pressure steam engines are simply amazing.

Many businessmen have discovered the high-pressure steam engine, and even went to the factory that used the high-pressure steam engine to see it, the roaring scene shocked them, the performance of the steam engine was amazing, and many businessmen wanted to buy a steam engine.

However, as long as the machinery factory in Beizhili can make it, and the patents are also in the hands of the official, this thing is still a top-secret technology.

Many businessmen go to the machinery factory to buy, but the machine factory does not accept their orders at all. Because the demand orders within the state-owned capital consortium are scheduled for next year.

Of course, these privately-funded businessmen can buy steam engines, but they must first meet the internal needs of the state-owned capital consortium, and the price is relatively high.

The price at which the steam engine is sold to state-owned enterprises is actually relatively high, but the machinery factory is also a state-owned enterprise, and the money is only changed from the left hand to the right hand, and the cost is actually relatively low.

The steam engine was soon applied to machining, and the steam engine was successfully used in production in various fields.

What flour, rice processing, sugar extraction......

There are so many fields where steam engines can be used, so that more and more orders are increasing, and the industrial revolution has begun, and after these steam engines are manufactured, they are basically installed in factories as quickly as possible, and then start production.

Many fields are still exploring how to use the steam engine, and the textile industry is the first to complete the exploration, and cotton cloth with low labor cost is produced in large quantities.

The price of cotton cloth on the market has not decreased, after all, it can be sold. On the contrary, the price of raw materials has risen, and the state-owned capital consortium has begun to buy cotton everywhere, even if the price is higher, it does not matter, because of the emergence of the steam engine, even the raw materials with higher prices can make profits.

But the textile industry owners and factory owners in Jiangnan can't stand such high raw material prices. It's just a rhythm that doesn't give a way to live!

The state-owned capital consortium now has access to cheaper cotton overseas, but it is still pushing up domestic cotton prices.

The only thing that can be fortunate is that the textile industry production capacity of the state-owned capital consortium in the eighth year of the Apocalypse has only increased by 1.5 million spindles, which is not enough to completely swallow the textile market of the Ming provinces, and the textile industry in Jiangnan has not been completely impacted. (To be continued.) )