"Murmuring ......"

Haitang Town, Yazhou County in late August, Sanya in later generations......

At this time of the 17th century, the landscapes here were like giant paintings, masterpieces, in the summer, burning in full swing under the scorching sun.

Standing barefoot on the fine sand of the beach, when the sea breeze blows in your face, a slight, cool touch blows on your face with the smell of seawater.

This is the first time since the ninth year of the Apocalypse that he has personally observed the scenery with his eyes after hearing his uncle describe what the sea in the south of Qiongzhou looks like.

He walked on the fine sand, the sun baked the sand hot, and the sand was crawling with crabs.

The surging waves hit the beach and play the most natural music, and the hot sun is reflected in the blue sea, sparkling like silver trees blooming.

Zhu Ciran walked into the sea recklessly, and as the sea water submerged his body, a coolness penetrated his whole body.

Compared with the sandy beaches in Guangxi and other places in Qiongzhou, the sand here in Haitang Town is very clean, the sea is clear and blue, and the coconut trees on the beach bring out the unique flavor of the beach.

Looking into the distance, the boats near the sea are rocking on the water, and it is so leisurely that it makes people jealous.

On the boat, some people who were dressed differently from the Han people, but looked similar to the Han people, were looking at Zhu Ciran and his party.

Zhu Ciran soaked in the sea, and then walked ashore, where a dozen brocade guards set up tents in a natural coconut grove some distance from the beach.

"Who are those people?"

Zhu Ciran went ashore, and Liu Shun and Zhang Xiu stepped forward to greet him, but Zhu Ciran looked curiously at the group of people living on the boat.

"It should be the Tan family living here, Your Highness doesn't have to care about them." Zhang Xiu glanced at the people on the boat and signaled that Zhu Ciran didn't have to care, but Zhu Ciran was even more concerned when he heard this.

"Why not?" Zhu Ciran asked Zhang Xiu, and Zhang Xiu could only explain the origin of the Tan family to him.

In the "Ancient and Modern Classics Museum" of the Ming Dynasty, there are only traces of the origin of the Tan family in some classics of the Han and Jin dynasties.

Among the classics, the Tan family first appeared when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty destroyed the Minyue Kingdom and fled south, and of course, in the earlier classics, there are also records of their life in the South China Sea.

In short, after the Han Dynasty reincorporated Liangguang into the territory, the Tan family lived in peace and stability, until the Tang and Song dynasties, they formed a fishing port headed by the Tan fishermen along the coast of Haifeng, and they barely settled on land.

During the Tang and Song dynasties, because the management of Liangguang was not good, they were often more laissez-faire towards the Tan family, but for a long time from the Yuan Dynasty, the Tan people were bullied by the local government.

They had no tribes, no land, and lived off the sea, and although the government did not have three edicts, the local gentry forces stipulated that the "Tan people" were not allowed to live on the shore, nor were they allowed to read and write, nor were they allowed to intermarry with the families on the shore.

Therefore, the name of "Tan Min" was never in the roster of the imperial examination.

Not only did the squires bully them, but the local government also did not organize the floating Tan people into households, so they did not have a household registration in Daming.

In some traditions, the Tan people considered it unlucky to build a house with bricks on land, and did not want to live ashore, believing that doing so would offend their ancestors and make it difficult for them to sail well.

But in reality, these traditional customs are deliberately driven out because successive local governments have felt that they are like floating populations, and they cannot collect taxes regularly.

This drive lasted for hundreds or thousands of years, and naturally, the Tan people also thought that it would be taboo to go ashore to live.

It's just that this taboo is not the ancestors, but the people on the shore......

"How can it be!"

Hearing what happened to the Tan people, Zhu Ciran cursed: "The land in the world belongs to the imperial court, what power do the local gentry and the government have to otherwise go ashore with the Tan people?!" ”

"The national dynasty is in urgent need of employing people at the moment, how many people are included in the outside world, don't the coastal yamen know?"

"I'm going to send it to my uncle and let him know what's going on in the south!"

Zhu Ciran is still a young man after all, and at the age of fourteen, he was already feeling pressure because of the burden on his shoulders and the gradually ending trip, and when he suddenly heard this kind of thing, no matter how big or small the matter was, he should be angry.

In his opinion, compared with the Jiaozhi people and the Luchuan people, the Tan family is obviously no different from the Han people.

It is much easier to integrate the Tanka family into the Han Chinese than in other places.

Obviously, on this issue, the local government still passed the buck to each other, which is simply unreasonable.

Thinking of this, Zhu Ciran suppressed his temper and asked, "How many Tan people are there in this coastal land?" ”

"I'm afraid...... No less than 200,000 ......" Zhang Xiu cautiously replied, which made Zhu Ciran clench his fists.

"It's ridiculous!" He squeezed these words out between his teeth, and then ordered some food to be delivered to the Tan family on the ship, and personally wrote a handwritten letter in the tent, asking them to rush to the capital for 800 li.

This is the first time he has used 800 miles to expedit, which is enough to see his resentment that he shirks to each other and is unwilling to accept the Tan family.

Many people can't understand his resentment, but Zhu Youzhen can understand his mood very well.

This handwritten letter was delivered to the carrier hall of the Qi Palace's mansion on August 23, but in the face of the content of the letter, Zhu Youzhen was not as excited as his eldest nephew.

"Let the Metropolitan Procuratorate send people to verify, and organize the Tan people in Liangguang and Fujian into households, and distribute cultivated cattle and raw land for reclamation, one for each household."

"The slave takes the command."

After being in power for so many years, Zhu Youzhen has long developed the problem of dealing with things without getting angry.

After all, if he had been so angry all the time, I am afraid that he would have died of anger long ago.

At present, what he cares about is the other three notes in his hand, and the content of these three notes is about Europe, the Western Regions, and India.

The first note on Europe was mainly transmitted back by the brocade guards left behind in Western Europe, but the news was already last year's.

The main content is that the thirty-year war has intensified, and the scale is becoming more and more uncontrollable.

Since Gustav II did not die at the Battle of Lützen, the Swedish army marched all the way across the Danube and gained a foothold in Bavaria, while Wallenstein was defeated.

The defeat on the Eastern Front led to the redeployment of the Holy Roman Empire's forces to the north, which in turn affected the Western Front.

In September last year, the French army attacked the Basque Country in Spain two years ahead of schedule, and successfully occupied it, and tried to continue to send troops to Catalonia in Spain.

The urgency of the war forced Spain to raise taxes again, which immediately caused discontent among the Portuguese people.

As the war intensified and dragged on, Spain's high taxes made its rule in Portugal increasingly unpopular.

As poverty grew, riots broke out in Évora and the Algarve in Portugal, and the Catalonia uprising broke out four years earlier.

Seeing this, the Portuguese aristocracy plotted a plot and was officially supported by João, Duke of Bragança.

The reason why Jin Yiwei knew so well was because Joao found the Jin Yiwei who were the diplomatic envoys of the Ming Dynasty to Europe, and he asked the Ming to stop the import of saltpeter and commodities to Spain.

It seems that Joao is well aware that he will completely abandon the Portuguese region only if Spain loses in the frontal battle.

Joao's proposal was made last year, and now it's August, and eight months have passed, so it's not clear what will happen.

Zhu Youzhen wondered if Daming should agree to João's request and sign a treaty with Portugal on the sale of the colony.

The Portuguese colonies now included the coastal region of Brazil on the east coast of South America, and the Ming Dynasty had gained a foothold in Southern Kunlun.

With the cultivated land and pastures cultivated by Portugal in the colonies, the Ming Dynasty could move tens of thousands of people to take over directly, and immediately became self-sufficient.

Provided, of course, that João has to cede this interest for the sake of the throne of the King of Portugal.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen wrote down his conditions.

"The Ming can interrupt the support of Franci, and can trade with Portugal to solve the problem of the shortage of Portuguese goods, but Portugal needs to cede the colonies of the New World as compensation for the interruption of trade between the Ming and Spain."

As time became closer and closer to his own domination, Zhu Youzhen also had to step up his attitude towards the contraction of Spanish goods.

Now for the sake of South America, Zhu Youzhen can agree to Portugal's conditions, but if Spain is willing to exchange the American colonies, the treaty can be completely torn up.

After dealing with European affairs, Zhu Youzhen set his sights on the echo of the Jinyiwei in the Western Regions.

With the eastward migration of Heshut and the northward movement of Dzungaria, Lin Dan Khan completely gained a firm foothold in the Western Regions, and he launched an expedition against the Kazakh Khanate in the west with Beshbali as his capital.

Not to mention the occupation of the Kazakh Lesser Yuz in the Balkhash Lake region, Lindan Khan foolishly launched an attack on the Yarkand Khanate, which was entrenched in the south of the Tien Shan, causing the Yangir Khan elected by the Kazakh Middle Yuz and the Great Yuz to unite with the Bukhara Khanate and the Yarkand Khanate in the south to jointly counter the attack of Lindan Khan, who invaded them.

"It's still the same politics doesn't work......"

Looking at Lin Dan Khan's political manipulation, Zhu Youzhen couldn't figure out how this guy didn't even understand such a simple truth as "pulling one faction and fighting another".

He really thought that he could unify the entire Western Regions and create a Western Mongol Empire by himself?

Zhu Youzhen shook his head and put the song down, and finally looked at the song in the Indian area.

This note was sent by Lu Xiangsheng in May, and it was not until August that it arrived in Luchuan Province, and it was rushed to the capital today after walking 800 miles.

The main content is nothing more than the Mughal Great Khan (Shah Jahan) to increase his troops and engage the small Western coalition army in the rivers and mountains of the northern part of the domains, and the battle line stretches for thousands of miles.

The reason for Lu Xiangsheng's ascension was relatively simple, that is, he hoped that the Ming Dynasty could send troops north of the Ganges River from the Demassa region to contain the troops in the northeast of the Mughals.

This request is not difficult, after Zhu Youzhen played the circle red, he took up the pen and wrote down an order for Hong Chengchou to send troops to contain the troops in the northeast of the Mughals.

After doing all this, he focused on the livelihood of the people in China.

The mountains of notes on the table were all sent by people from Zhejiang and Nanzhili, as well as from the northern provinces.

The content is also very simple, that is, begging for "exemption" and "stabilizing food prices".

Since April, the areas of Nanzhili and Zhejiang have suffered from drought as in history, and although there will be no water supply or thousands of miles of red land like in the north, the reduction of grain output is a sure thing.

Since the beginning of summer, paddy fields have become irrigated land, and irrigated land has become dry land, although the dry land can barely be planted with the water network in the south of the Yangtze River, but the yield is inevitably decreasing.

In July, the price of rice per stone in Nanzhili soared from 500 wen to 700 wen to 900 wen, and the people complained.

After entering August, many dry lands in Zhejiang were cut off, and Zhejiang party officials headed by Shi Fenglai, Feng Quan, and others begged for exemption from the oyster for three years to stabilize grain prices.

Nanchang and Jiujiang in the northern part of Jiangxi, as well as Fujian and Guangdong, have also suffered from drought caused by falling water levels, and rice prices have been rising for a while......

This is true in the South, and it is not easy in the North.

The people of Shanxi almost migrated, but the drought still did not leave the place, and Henan could not withstand the blow of the drought, and many people sold their fields one after another, took the iron rolls issued by the government, and moved to the northeast by train.

At this moment, if Zhu Youzhen walked out of the capital, he could see that the four railway stations in the east, west, north and south of the capital were crowded with the migrated northern people, and even more so along the railway.

Although the situation is not as serious as in the 14th year of the Apocalypse, it is enough to show how big the drought has been.

The most notable point is the price of rice.

Due to the drought in the south of the Yangtze River, the grain from Sichuan, Guizhou, and Huguang that was transported by water on the Yangtze River began to be purchased by the people at a high price after entering Jiangxi.

As a result of the panic buying of grain by merchants and ordinary people in Jiangxi, Nanzhili, and Zhejiang provinces, the grain that was originally going to flow into the north through the canal was bought by them one after another, so that the price of grain in the north rose sharply.

On August 22, the prices of vegetables in the Beijing market early this morning rose by more than 20% compared with April.

Rice rose from 3 wen per catty to 4 wen per catty, and wheat rose from 4 wen per jin to 6 wen per catty.

Other cereals and feed raw materials such as barley, buckwheat, beans, bran, and bran have risen by two to three percent.

This is true for grains, not to mention meat, which has risen from 200 wen to 280 wen per stone due to the increase in the price of feed raw materials.

The rise in feed has led to an increase in the price of chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, cattle, sheep and other livestock.

The beef, which had originally dropped to fifteen wen a catty, suddenly rose to twenty wen now, returning to the price of the first year of the Apocalypse.

The water chicken of six yuan has now risen to eight yuan, not to mention pork, which has risen from eighteen to twenty-six yuan, the highest increase.

The rise in the price of these meats has also led to the rise in the prices of fish and shrimp.

The fish and shrimp that originally cost three cents a pound have now risen to five cents, but fortunately, the amount of fish is large and can barely be suppressed.

As for the price of vegetables, it has also risen by one or two percent, but it is generally controllable.

The purchasing power of the three provinces in the south of the Yangtze River appeared at a time when it should not have appeared, and their crazy robbery led to a soaring price in Beizhili.

This is still the case in Beizhili, which is close to the sea, and Shanxi and Henan, which live inland, are not to mention.

As of the ninth day of August, the price of rice in Shanxi was 12 wen per catty, 128 yuan per stone, and 10 wen per catty in Henan, 125 yuan per stone.

However, Shanxi, thanks to the construction of the most difficult section of the railway from Baoji in Shaanxi to Guangyuan in Sichuan, the grain on both sides of the Jialing River in Sichuan was purchased, and the grain was transported north along the Jialing River to Guangyuan, and then the grain was transported by train to the Guanzhong area.

As the place where the price of rice soared at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the rice in Shaanxi in the ninth year of Chongzhen in history was worth five dollars of silver per bucket, which is equivalent to five taels per stone.

However, at present, the price of rice in Shaanxi is 66 wen per bucket and 660 wen per stone.

The price of rice in Shaanxi is still like this, not to mention Hexi's, which is stable at about 600 wen per stone by relying on the input of Sichuan.

The two most turbulent provinces were calmed down, and for Zhu Youzhen, the situation was under control.

"Your Highness, the Changping positions in the three provinces south of the Yangtze River have hoarded more than 93 million stones of rice at the moment, can you release some? Should the exemption also be arranged? ”

In the hall, when an unfamiliar voice sounded, Zhu Youzhen also looked up at the person in front of him.

Wen Tiren, this human spirit in the history of the late Ming Dynasty has been standing in the carrier hall for half an hour, and all he wants is to ask the imperial court to open a warehouse and release grain to stabilize the price of grain in the south of the Yangtze River.

Needless to say, Zhu Youzhen also knows what to do, the reason why he didn't open the warehouse to release grain at the beginning was because he was worried that the grain that was often closed was not stable enough.

After a few months of stabilization, many grain merchants were able to transport all their grain to Jiangnan while learning that grain prices in Jiangnan had skyrocketed.

As long as they take action and have already bought grain, then Zhu Youzhen can open a warehouse and release grain.

"Are all the local grain merchants moving?" Zhu Youzhen ignored Feng Quan, turned his head and asked Lu Wenzhao, Cao Huachun, and Wang Chengen.

"Back to Your Highness......" Cao Huachun replied:

"It's all moving, and many grain merchants even went to Sichuan, Huguang, and Liangguang, and made a contract with local farmers to purchase grain in the autumn."

"The contract is signed under the supervision of government officials, and grain merchants can only abide by it."

"What about the price? How much does it take to not hurt them? Zhu Youzhen took a sip of a cup of herbal tea, and Cao Huachun also responded respectfully:

"There are slight differences in different places, but in general, the price of rice in Jiangnan is more appropriate at the price of 600 Wen."

After Cao Huachun finished speaking, Feng Quan immediately looked at Zhu Youzhen, but hurriedly lowered his head when Zhu Youzhen looked at him.

The soaring price of rice in Jiangnan directly affected many Jiangnan gentry and small and medium-sized landlords.

In this case, exempting them from the field endowment of one out of ten can make it much easier for them, so they naturally have to push the officials in the court to speak for them.

"It's okay, but three years is too long."

Zhu Youzhen put down the teacup and glanced at Feng Quan: "The national dynasty is often exempted from disasters in one place, and the disasters are exempted for one year, and then the disasters are affected in the second year, and then they are exempted. ”

"In one go, the three provinces in the south of the Yangtze River will be exempted from the field endowment for three years, Feng Shilang doesn't know how much field endowment grain will be exempted?"

"This ...... Xia Guan knows, but Jiangnan is different from other places. After all, Feng Quan naturally can't get angry.

In fact, at this juncture, none of them want to honestly cross over first, wait for Zhu Youzhen to become a domain, and then stand up and raise their eyebrows.

But the problem is that the drought in Jiangnan is something they have not thought of, and they must also stand up and share the pressure of the Jiangnan gentry.

Begging for forgiveness is unavoidable.

"Jiangnan is ......no different," Zhu Youzhen sneered:

"On the field of grain, Jiangnan is not as good as the three provinces of "Lu Laojiao", and on taxation, Jiangnan is not as good as the four provinces of mountains and rivers. ”

"The four provinces have not been exempted for three years in one go, why can Jiangnan?"

Zhu Youzhen has not fully exploited the tax potential of Jiangnan, especially in terms of population.

The reason why it was not mined was, to put it bluntly, because the gentry in Jiangnan had hidden tenants.

In the feudal era, except for the prosperity and rule of the first 80 years of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the tenants under the command of the gentry and Haoqiang were the most stable group of people, especially after Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated that the tenants and employers were in an equal relationship, the tenants reached unprecedented stability.

But the problem is that the current Ming Dynasty wants to enter industrialization, even if it is semi-industrial and semi-agricultural, and the gentry and powerful are not allowed to hide the tenants.

It is Zhu Yuanzhang's business that Zhu Yuanzhang does not count tenants, but Zhu Youzhen wants to count them, because the national policies are different, and the systems and policies are different.

Now he wants to count, the Jiangnan gentry are blocking it, and he wants him to give Jiangnan a good look, Zhu Youzhen doesn't take the Jiangnan gentry across the board.

"There are more than 50 million people in the south of the Yangtze River, so let's release 50 million Shi Changping grain, and as for the exemption, one year is enough."

Zhu Youzhen deliberately used paper to stimulate Feng Quan, how could Feng Quan not understand?

In his opinion, Zhu Youzhen completely blamed them for the model lake of Jiangnan Qimin's household, so he deliberately said this.

"On the Jiangnan side, the current population is no longer 56 million before, but 60 million......"

"Your Highness, can all this Changping grain be released?"

Zhu Youzhen said that Feng Quan had to ask the landlords of the three provinces south of the Yangtze River to hand over nearly four million tenants.

He can't help it, if he doesn't hand over the tenants, then the exemption policy and the Changping grain will not be released, not to mention that the exemption can exempt the gentry from tens of millions of stone fields.

Many of the gentry had only one or two acres of arable land, and the price of grain could not be reduced, and with the production of the land, the tenants could not have enough to eat, so they had to move away to a place where they could support themselves.

It is impossible for the gentry to buy grain for the tenants to eat, nor can they pat their heads and say that they will not collect rent.

In the final analysis, at the price of 700 wen and one stone of rice, once the grain with land rent and exemption is sold, they can make a profit of thousands or even tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

If they were willing, the feudal society would not be complained about eating "human blood steamed buns".

Instead of watching the tenants leave, it is better to release the people and exchange them for benefits.

Thinking of this, Feng Quan had a toothache, and Zhu Youzhen also replied lightly: "I didn't expect that the household registration found out by the household department in the three provinces could have so many ......."

"That's it, release 80 million stones of Changping grain, and the land of the three provinces will be exempted for a year, so be it."

"Slave and maid receive ......"

Zhu Youzhen spoke, and Wang Chengen responded, not giving Feng Quan room to bargain.

In the face of Zhu Youzhen's attitude, Feng Quan also knew that it was impossible to be exempted from two or three years, so he could only accept it when he saw it, so as not to anger Zhu Youzhen.

"In that case, the lower official will go and inform the household department."

After that, Feng Quan returned the salute respectfully, and then withdrew from the carrier hall.

As for Zhu Youzhen, he glanced at the mountains of songs, raised his hand and rubbed his brows......