"Changing rice to mulberry"

These four words are a policy made during the Jiajing period, which transformed most of the fields in Zhejiang into mulberry fields to produce silk.

In more modern terms, this is called industrial upgrading.

But such an escalation led to an embarrassing incident.

After the people of Nanzhili saw that the people of Zhejiang had changed their lives to mulberry because of the change from rice to mulberry, they also followed suit, and then it led to the change of rice to mulberry in Nanzhili and Zhejiang, and most of the fields were mulberry fields.

Looking at it this way, because of the change from rice to mulberry, the people have a better and more comfortable life, and the imperial court can also use miscellaneous items to increase taxes, and it seems that the situation is very good.

But there is a kind of crisis hidden under this great goodness.

Nanzhili and Zhejiang are home to one-third of the world's population, and if the Ming Dynasty actually had 150 million people, there would be at least 50 million people here.

Originally, the local farmland could not only feed 50 million people, but also produce food to feed 10 million more people, so it was a good thing that it could go north to support the north.

But as I said earlier, there is a kind of crisis in such a good thing.

That is, after the rice was changed to mulberry, half of the arable land that could support 60 million people was cut down, and now it can only feed 30 million people.

But the number of people living on this land is 50 million, so it means that 20 million people need to import food to feed themselves.

Where does their food come from? Quite simply, only the grain from Sichuan, Huguang and Jiangxi can satisfy their appetite.

Therefore, they transferred the grain to these three provinces, and after the grain from the three provinces arrived in Jiangnan, it would be detained and sold to the people in Jiangnan at a high price to grab profits.

The grain was detained and exploited, feeding the people in the south of the Yangtze River, but the north still needs grain.

Therefore, the self-interested Jiangnan Shangjia Group began to use another means to grab profits.

When the grain in the three provinces is harvested, they will buy and store the grain at a high price, and then sell the grain to the people of Jiangnan to grab the first profit.

The imperial court will ask why the grain from the south is not available, and officials in Sichuan, Huguang, and Jiangxi will point the blame to Jiangnan, but Jiangnan will find various reasons to prevaricate.

At this time, because of the late arrival of grain in the north, the price of grain began to rise, and there was even a famine.

At this time, one stone of grain, which was originally only three hundred wen in the place of origin, could be sold for eight or nine hundred wen one stone when it was transported to the north, and the profit tripled.

In this era, it can be said that the profit can be tripled completely, which completely arouses evil thoughts in people's hearts.

As a result, a large interest group began to rise.

Zhu Youzhen wants to transport grain directly to Liaodong? Yes, the hundred officials will not stop you, but if one of your sea ships has an accident, the officials in the court belonging to the three parties of Qi, Chu and Zhejiang will impeach you.

It's as if you didn't have a shipwreck, but a whole batch of grain.

As for how the ship sank? Whoever gains is naturally the hand of the hand.

Unlike the increase in commercial taxes, grain is the simplest and most accessible tool for profit-making for all parties in this era.

Commercial taxes and miscellaneous items were not important to the Qi Party and the Chu Party, but were more important to the Zhejiang Party.

But for food, whoever moves will die......

In history, Shen Tingyang transported grain by sea with the support of Chongzhen, just transporting a batch of grain, saving tens of thousands of taels of silver for Chongzhen, allowing the north to breathe a little, which shows the importance of grain.

But the situation at that time was that the world had already been exiled, and the capable ministers in the Qi Party, the Chu Party, the Zhejiang Party, and the Donglin Party were all killed by Tianqi, Wei Zhongxian, and Chongzhen in more than 20 years of sanctions.

There is a group of wine bags and rice bags left, and they can only fool Chongzhen, but they dare not pit Chongzhen.

Because he really dares to kill, and one kill is to kill the whole family.

It's just that there are too many people with political vision and means at the moment, not to mention Zhu Youzhen, who tied the good royal brothers to the thief ship together, and it is estimated that the two brothers fell into the water and died.

Therefore, coming up with a safe way that does not stimulate the nerves of the profit-benefiting party is something that Zhu Youzhen must do.

He walked out of Man Gui's narration and looked at Yang Lian at first sight.

"Yang thinks that if you take the sea, is it feasible to transport grain to Liaodong?"

As soon as Zhu Youzhen opened his mouth, he tested Yang Lian, just because Yang Lian was one of the few ministers in the Donglin Party who did not have vested interests behind him.

If even Yang Lian didn't dare to face the sea directly, then the other Donglin parties didn't dare to do so.

Zhu Youzhen's words made everyone look at Yang Lian, and he was not a fool, he just said:

"If things are beneficial to the imperial court, they can naturally do things, but Your Highness needs to think about it, the Ming Dynasty can withstand His Highness's toss a few times."

Yang Lian vaguely reminded Zhu Youzhen, which also made it clear that Yang Lian wanted to do it, but if he did it, the Donglin Party would definitely oppose it.

The supporters of the Donglin Party are all squires, and they also rely on grain and land for food, so it is difficult to guarantee that they have nothing to do with the matter of grain.

The Ming Dynasty is like an old man who is riddled with all kinds of diseases at the moment.

If you are careful and get rid of all kinds of minor diseases little by little, then you can live for a while, but major diseases will still break out.

But if you try to get rid of the biggest illness at once, then it will only make it die suddenly.

If you want to move the sea, you must first push the majesty of the emperor to the highest, and the thing that promotes the majesty of the emperor is nothing more than war and political means.

Either like Jiajing, he played the entire court between applause, or just like Ming Chengzu and Ming Taizu, they won big victories one after another.

Or, like Zhu Jianshen, the ancestor of Ming Xianzong, grasped with both hands.

But it is impossible for Zhu Youzhen to play political tricks and fight again.

Therefore, he can only rely on the royal brother......

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen also put away his thoughts and said to Man Gui, Sun Yingyuan, Qi Jin and others:

"I will leave for the capital tomorrow, and after returning to the capital, I will ask the political envoys from all over the country to post notices to inform the people of the requirements for the recruitment of troops by the Imperial Horse Supervisor and the reclamation of the wasteland at the foot of Yanshan."

"Man Gui, you send someone back to Xuanfu to recruit troops, and by the way, take a look at General Qi's training method, is there anything you can learn from, and temporarily supervise the three guards of Yulin."

"Huachun, you stay in the barracks, tomorrow for me to receive the Shizhu soldiers and General Qin, the day after tomorrow the Ministry of Martial Arts Sanwei craftsmen arrive, you can start to repair the imperial mausoleum."

After saying this, Zhu Youzhen didn't say anything more, Qi Jin and the three of them gave up their hands, Cao Huachun nodded, and Yang Lian kept silent.

Zhu Youzhen saw that he didn't speak, nor did he say anything, but retreated with Wang Chengen.

However, not long after the two left, a brocade guard suddenly walked towards Zhu Youzhen with a handwritten letter, and handed it over:

"Your Highness, things have changed, I'm afraid you need to know ......"

"Huh?" Hearing this, Zhu Youzhen had some bad premonitions, and took the handbook at a glance.

There is not much content in the letter, just a sentence "Qin Liangyu has led 3,000 Youyang white pole soldiers to the north."

Zhu Youzhen didn't expect that after Qin Liangyu sent Qin Bangping and other 3,000 stone pillar white pole soldiers, he trained 3,000 Youyang white pole soldiers to go north in a short time.

In this way, his plan to encircle and suppress Yu Chongming is flawed, but on the other hand, it also means that his cards in the north are better played.

"We must change the plan to encircle and suppress extravagant Chongming......"

Frowning, Zhu Youzhen thought of this in his heart, and then put away his handwriting, ready to pack his things, and return to the capital tomorrow.