From spring ploughing to summer grain harvest, for a full four months, the Southern Ming court rested with the people, and basically did not do any toss that required the mobilization of a large number of people's forces.

Zhu Shuren and Shi Kefa, just at the level of internal political theory, sorted out the situation of the population and land, eliminated the accumulated shortcomings, and reformed the old and made the new.

In addition, the work of taking stock of land and population naturally brought about the convenience of the imperial court to vigorously promote new high-yielding crops.

After all, after checking the land situation, a large number of immigrants from the north who fled from the north will be placed to cultivate the terra nullius, and the seeds of these people are provided by the government, and the government will naturally send small officials to check the local land situation and recommend replanting on the land suitable for replanting.

It's just that Zhu Shuren also knows that wherever the officials pass, they can reap the benefits, so he didn't set performance indicators for the following this time, nor did he use the promotion rate to assess, it was purely a suggestive promotion. In addition to promotion, they also let the supervision officials of other systems that are not under the control of each other to observe the people's situation and understand whether there is any forced replanting.

Otherwise, maybe we will be able to create a situation similar to "Wang Anshi's Qingmiao Law has become a forcible apportionment of usury".

As a result, after the spring ploughing and summer harvest in the first year of Longwu, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Liangguang also had many barren farmland in mountainous areas, which were replanted with potatoes, and the grain output was not without a small supplement.

】

Although some of them are flat, because of the high terrain and insufficient water irrigation, the originally unusable land is planted with corn - although corn is not very suitable for cultivation in the south, but the advantage of corn with less water is beyond the reach of other staple foods.

In the south of the late Ming Dynasty, even though many farmlands were flat, they were still rated as lower fields because the terrain was too high to focus on irrigation. In this particular case, corn can be a good supplement.

As for the rest of the muddy and low-lying land, those who originally planted rice should try not to toss, and those who could not even grow rice should be rectified as appropriate.

If you can dredge deep and pile shallow, then plant taro on the land dug out after dredging. If the local labor force is insufficient to reorganize the land to make polders, the planting of lotus root in the shallow swamps of muddy ponds will be directly promoted, which can also subsidize the staple food.

Lotus root and taro are both crops that have existed in China since ancient times, and taro was popularized relatively later, but these crops, even if the starch content is not low, have not been able to become effective staple foods for a long time, and the ancient food preservation technology, the low efficiency of commercial circulation and scheduling, is also not unrelated.

The shelf life of taro is much less than that of potatoes, and lotus root is even more perishable. If a farmer tries to use pure-bred lotus root as a staple food, the biggest possibility is that the rest of the lotus root will rot after not eating it for two months, and then he will starve to death for most of the year.

During the Song Dynasty, the popularity of taro and lotus root, according to later research, should be much more than that of the Ming Dynasty, an important reason is that the Song Dynasty had a developed commodity economy, and the emperor did not crack down on business. Therefore, farmers who grow these high-starch vegetables can sell a large amount of vegetables to buy rice and save them during the harvest season.

In the Ming Dynasty, the grassroots commercial social security was relatively poor, and everyone was more inclined to a self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy, and the farmers who grew grain were too lazy to trade and grow their own food. After the exchange atmosphere deteriorated, everyone became more and more conservative, lest planting things with a short shelf life would lead to life and death in the hands of others.

However, with the change of the administrative atmosphere of the Longwu Dynasty, and the fact that Shen Tingyang, who was a wealthy merchant, became the head of the household department, Zhu Shuren also encouraged the military tun organized by the imperial court to provide trading guarantees for the subordinate refugees.

After these southward displaced people planted perishable high-starch vegetables, the local military garrison would come forward to purchase them in an organized manner, so that the local army and other grain growers could replace some of the staple foods with taro and lotus root during the harvest season for two or three months.

The saved staple grain was then traded to the displaced people who sold the lotus root at the official protective price, and this part of the agricultural economy that had been stifled was revitalized.

After being resettled in Huainan, many northern refugees who went into exile at the beginning of the year chose rotten land to plant lotus roots on the muddy Chaohu Lake and Shaobi Plain. After the first batch of lotus roots was harvested in May, the local garrison immediately took charge of the purchase and gave them the official price in exchange for grain.

After reaping the benefits, these homeless people couldn't help but begin to waver and reflect: they had been brainwashed by Zhu Yuanzhang's Ming ideology for many years, and they always felt that business was competing with farmers for profit. Farmers who grow grain should grow and eat their own crops (originally those who grow cash crops have to trade, because sericulture, cotton, and tea cannot be eaten).

But now there is solid evidence that vegetable farmers should join the trade, at least in this form of commercial prosperity, to unleash agricultural productivity. Let more people who were worried about the shelf life of crops and dare not plant them have an alternative to make a living.

It seems that the Ming Dynasty's idea of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business needs to be refined and adjusted from the root. There are many kinds of business, some of which should be encouraged, while others need to be suppressed and cannot be one-size-fits-all.

……

Under the Longwu regime, agricultural production in the south recovered very well during the year.

As the time soon comes to the end of May, the busy farming season has finally passed, and after the summer replanting is completed, until the autumn harvest, the people will be relatively idle.

If the imperial court has a large-scale construction project, if it is willing to take out the silver to provide relief for work, it will also allow the people to earn a little extra money and better restore the people's livelihood.

Therefore, Zhu Shuren, who has been living in Nanjing for so long, finally plans to re-exit the customs and go out to move his muscles.

Of course, Zhu Shuren has not been idle in Nanjing for the past few months, and has been living a very healthy life - as early as this year's Lantern Festival, just after the celebration of the king, Zhu Shuren began to quit drinking.

I also pay attention to adjusting my work and rest, eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly, and all scientific health preservation methods. In ancient times, there was absolutely no other young man in his twenties who could maintain his health like this.

And Zhu Shuren, who had already had a daughter, quickly proved to the world again that of course there was no problem with his body. In April, Zhu Shuren's wife, the little princess Zhu Yuchan, was actually pregnant. It's just that the first reaction was too slight and I didn't find it immediately.

At the end of April, because the relative had not come for a long time, the imperial doctor also repeatedly confirmed and carefully repeated the investigation before daring to report the good news to the emperor and the prince. Anyway, no matter whether it is confirmed or not, you can first follow the prescription of fetal health and diet without delay.

After learning about this situation, Zhu Shuren finally breathed a sigh of relief.

After only staying at home for more than two months, I let my wife move, which is already very good. The only suspense left is whether it is a man or a woman.

"I hope it's a son, we don't prefer sons over daughters, but this time it's about the country, to stabilize the hearts of the people in the world, you have to give a son first, and it doesn't matter how many daughters you have in the future."

Zhu Shuren, who has always been open-minded and has the soul of a modern person, is also rare to be feudal, and he always thinks so. is really the situation of the times, and he can't be capricious.

By the end of May, counting the days, Zhu Yuchan's stomach had been two and a half months and almost three months, and the most accident-prone period had passed, and the follow-up should be relatively stable, and Zhu Shuren was relieved to prepare to go out.

Zhu Yuchan is naturally still very reluctant, a weak woman has movement in her stomach, but her husband has to go far away, which makes her very insecure.

Zhu Shuren comforted gently: "Don't worry, you won't be able to go out for a few months." We don't have to do everything ourselves now, but we will come back before the autumn harvest. At the end of the year and the beginning of the next year, we must still stay in Nanjing City and accompany our wife well. ”

Zhu Shuren's promise can be regarded as reassuring Zhu Yuchan.

The doctor has also calculated, the expected date of delivery is about the end of next year's New Year, if it is fast, it is normal to end the first month, and it is normal to slow down the whole month of February. At that time, it is also the agricultural slack season, and there should be nothing to toss about other affairs during the New Year.

……

After saying goodbye to his wife, Zhu Shuren recruited his staff Gu Yanwu to sort out the key points of work worthy of inspection in the near future.

Because he had just made his mind, Zhu Shuren didn't have any plans before, so he needed to understand the situation in all aspects in the past few months.

Gu Yanwu brought a large number of files, and Zhu Shuren first outlined and read it, focusing on understanding the recent progress of army building and armament planning.

In view of the fact that the window period for the north-south truce will be relatively long, Zhu Shuren estimates that it will be at least one year or more, so this year's army building will mainly focus on thoroughly investigating empty salaries, implementing the improvement of the army's treatment, and cracking down on the blood of soldiers.

As for the technical and tactical training level, it has not been put on the agenda for the time being. Anyway, if you have time, then you should first do the things that lay a good foundation, and the appearance and loyalty of the army have generally improved, so that they can be given new weapons, and only after training can they rest assured.

Otherwise, the will to fight and loyalty are not guaranteed, and if you first train new weapons, it will only become a double-edged sword - just like the Beiyang New Army at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the technical and tactical level has come up, but the problem is that when you encounter war, you will not contribute to the imperial court at all.

It is necessary to check the empty salary, crack down and drink the blood of the soldiers, these are the shortcomings of the Ming Dynasty in the past at least a century and a half, which can show that when Baozong was captured by Wara, the Ming army already had these problems, so the claim that the army of 500,000 was so vulnerable in front of the Tatars.

If Zhu Shuren wants to improve now, there must be resistance. But in the final analysis, he still relied on two hole cards to have the confidence to slowly push it step by step:

The first is that the Shen family is rich and willing to invest in the army. Whether it is the armament of Zhu Shuren's governors in various provinces, or his father's responsibility for the allocation of funds from the household department, since the beginning of this year, at least "the silver will not be withheld before the household department leaves the capital".

When Shen Tingyang was defending the city in Nanjing, he actually issued two million taels of silver to the defending army, which was directly donated by the Shen family out of his own pocket, and the money from the treasury was not touched. Such an exemplary power is placed over there, and the grace and power are exerted, and the following has to be greatly restrained.

Second, relying on the prestige of the great victory in foreign wars, the prestige of Zhu Shuren's family in the army has been unprecedentedly improved, even if there are old generals who are reluctant to have the blood in their hands, Zhu Shuren can also mix sand and transfer generals from Huguang to take over.

In the process, of course, there were a very few generals who almost tried to mutiny in order to drink the blood of the soldiers. But the soldiers below didn't listen to their own generals, and as soon as the court came to suppress it, they immediately surrendered to the court, and those scum officers who stubbornly drank the blood of the soldiers were purged a lot.

Just killing people killed hundreds of people can be regarded as having to be used in troubled times. Considering that the total number of the old armies in Nanzhili, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang was also small by 200,000 in name, it was not too much to kill a few hundred scum who drank the blood of soldiers.

As a result of this rectification, we will strive to clear up the empty salaries of the troops in the above-mentioned provinces within this year, so that the soldiers will have enough money to eat, and next year they will be able to distribute new weapons for new technical and tactical training.

……

After having a clear understanding of the work in army building, Zhu Shuren took a glimpse of the progress in the armaments and industrial fields.

In the first half of this year, there seemed to be no new trends worth inspecting in the arsenals in Wuchang and other places, and they were all doing their best to produce "Wuchang-made" new rifles. Daye's steel plant is also developing steadily, and there is no qualitative change.

That kind of rifle was only set in the autumn of last year, the first generation of mass production was set, and then began to gradually increase production, and finally when the decisive battle with Duoduo, the whole army of the Southern Ming Dynasty only had a total of 5,000 of this new type of rifle, and it was also divided into two battlefields in Huguang and Nanzhili, Zhang Huangyan had less than 2,000 on his side, and Zhu Shuren had more than 3,000 in his hands.

Since it is a new model, there is naturally no need to make a bold move to start from scratch, just expand production capacity directly, which is all hard work to spend money and resources, not technical work.

At most, after several battles with Azig and Duoduo, Fang Yizhi and Song Yingxing also listened to the feedback of the soldiers in front, integrated some improved ideas that had been tested in actual combat, and fine-tuned them.

If the previous Wuchang was made, it was about equivalent to the Charlevier 1728 type of the French, and only a few indicators could reach the Charleville 1763 type.

That Fang Yizhi and Song Yingxing's latest adjusted "Wuchang 2.0" is basically the level of the Frenchman Charleville 1763, and even exceeds the level of the eve of the Napoleonic Wars in terms of material quality.

Such a standard rifle, as a large-scale extermination equipment in the future, is enough, and it will continue to be produced in the past two years.

In the second half of last year, about four or five months of switching to the production of new rifles, a total of more than 5,000 was produced. At this rate, the annual output of this year will be about 123 to 15,000, and next year will be about the same.

If we want to speed up further, we must continue to expand the production capacity of steel plants, and we must also increase the scale of employment of craftsmen in military factories, or consider copying the factories in Wuchang and Daye, and follow a set of industrial systems in Nanzhili.

Now Zhu Shuren is already the governor of the seven southern provinces after all, and he still controls the Chinese and foreign military, and will be stationed in Nanjing. There is really no need for him to leave his roots in Wuchang, and it is also necessary to back up a set of production capacity around Nanjing.

After thoroughly sorting out the current situation, Zhu Shuren asked Gu Yanwu and asked him to provide some new information:

"This year's agricultural slack, I want to copy a set of military industry and iron factories similar to Huguang in Nanzhi, I don't know how the copper, iron and peat deposits in Nanzhi have been rectified, and is there a mine worth expanding?

If you want to engage in the military industry, you still have to start from scratch from the iron factory, and you can't expect Daye to supply steel, so that you can be prepared. ”

Zhu Shuren's thinking is a bit similar to the third-line national defense construction in later generations, if there is only one key iron mine and steel plant in most of the country in the south, it is too easy to have an accident, and there must be a full set of backups.

And the relevant work was obviously done before, Gu Yanwu has sufficient information here, and he immediately sorted it out:

"Have you forgotten? A few months ago, you explained that you wanted to explore and expand the mine. The people in the Ministry of Industry have recently made gains in Taipingfu, Chizhou, Huzhou and other places. Wuchang also sent craftsmen to guide and raise points. ”

Zhu Shuren recalled and compared, and knew that the Ministry of Industry was talking about the iron ore in Ma'anshan in later generations, as well as the Tongling copper mine that had been discovered in ancient times, which could be further expanded. Both of these places were in the area south of the Yangtze River in Anhui in later generations, and now belong to Nanzhili.

In the east, there are some coal mines in the Changxing area of Huzhou Prefecture in Zhejiang, as well as in the Xuancheng area of Anhui Province adjacent to it, although the quality is worse than the Anyuan coal mine used in the Huguang and Daye iron mines in the past, and some of them are bituminous coal with relatively high sulfur content.

But the advantage is that the transportation is convenient, and it is very close to iron ore and copper mines. If we can do some pre-process and pretreat the coal, then the coal mine in southern Anhui and western Zhejiang, combined with the Ma'anshan iron mine and Tongling copper mine, is estimated to be able to create a larger-scale metallurgical complex than the Daye system in Huguang.

After all, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Zhidong mainly promoted Han Yeping, an important reason was that at that time, China did not know much about coal pretreatment, and the steel plant was too picky of coal, not that Daye's iron ore reserves and quality were really more than Ma'anshan.

"Arrange it, during this time, I will go to Taiping Mansion (Ma'anshan), Chizhou (Tongling), Huzhou, and Ningguo (Xuancheng) for a turn. The itinerary is not too stressful, just go back to Nanjing before winter. Zhu Shuren casually ordered.

——

PS: I've also warned that there will be farming before, so let's remind you in detail. If you don't want to see farming, you can raise one next week. By the end of next week, this truce has basically passed, and you can start fighting the Tartars again.

It can also be regarded as a reminder for readers who only watch the killing of Tartar dramas.