"Money, money, money! Why is there no money again?! ”

"Long live the ...... of anger"

On the nineteenth day of the first lunar month, when Zhu Youzhen and Zhu Ciran were having fun outside, Zhu Youxiao, who was pressed on the dragon chair in the capital, picked up the music and fell on the table.

Bi Ziyan, who came to perform the matter, asked Zhu Youxiao to calm his anger, but his expression was very uneasy.

At the same time, he also continued to play with his body bent:

"Last year, Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Nanzhili, Zhejiang, Hexi, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Beizhili and other provinces all suffered from different degrees of drought, among which Zhejiang was the most."

"The total amount of cultivated land exempted in the two capitals and eight provinces is more than 294 million mu, and in addition to the reduction in grain production in various localities, only more than 54.2 million stone fields have been collected for grain and more than 38.9 million taels of silver in taxes."

"Although the Beijing-Liaoning railway is connected, the railways of Moliao, Mobei, Liaobei, Songchuan, and Shanxi have started construction one after another, and the expenditure is greater."

"The surplus of more than 20 million taels and nearly 39 million taels of tax and silver are not enough to make up for the civil and military affairs, and the amount that the Ministry of Industry needs to spend is more than 26 million taels."

"The two combined, the national dynasty will spend more than 83 million taels of silver at the beginning of this year, and even if it sells grain from the fields, there is still a shortfall of more than 6 million taels."

Bi Ziyan told the truth, but Zhu Youxiao asked rhetorically when he heard this: "When King Qi is here, how should the shortage be handled?" ”

"It's usually the Treasury Department's inventory of overseas gold and silver." Bi Ziyan responded.

Hearing that there was a way, Zhu Youxiao also waved his hand and said: "Then transfer the overseas gold and silver of the Financial Department to make up for it." ”

"The minister's decree ......" Bi Ziyan breathed a sigh of relief, and then said to Zhu Youxiao:

"Long live, this year, there are more than 140 million stones of grain in the regular closed warehouses in various places, do you choose to open a warehouse to stabilize the price of grain?"

"No!" Seeing that Bi Ziyan asked about the matter of Changping Grain, Zhu Youxiao uncharacteristically refused:

"King Qi has already explained before leaving Beijing that the grain can only be opened in the summer to the autumn harvest, and there is no need to discuss this matter, wait for the king of Qi to return to Beijing."

"Yes......" Seeing that Zhu Youxiao did not agree to open a position to stabilize grain prices, Bi Ziyan could only prepare to withdraw from the Qianqing Palace after returning the salute.

However, at this time, Zhu Youxiao stopped him and asked, "What is the situation in Qi State, Xiaoxiyang, Southern Kunlun, and Nanzhou?" ”

"Long live Hui...... Bi Ziyan went over what he wanted to say in his mind, and only replied after making sure there was no problem:

"According to the Qi State document sent by Yingzhou in Layue last year, the Qi State has reclaimed more than 1,176,000 acres of land, and there are 140,000 soldiers and civilians in the local area, of which 120,000 people are local naturalized natives."

"In addition, there are more than 123,000 local local labor campers in Qi State, more than 164,000 labor campers in Yingzhou, and a total of 467,000 military and civilian laborers."

"This year, Qi will also extradite 230,000 labor reformers from Yingzhou to Qi State, and the King of Qi has wholesaled 30 newly launched steamships to be transported on the 23rd day of the lunar month last year."

After talking about the affairs of Qi State, Bi Ziyan began to talk about Da Ming's own affairs again:

"As for the small western ocean, at the moment the dynasty mainly controls the northern defense line and the land of Ceylon Province."

"There are more than 326,000 immigrants from the Chinese Dynasty, more than 1,657,000 natives, more than 2 million labor campers, and more than 26 million acres of cultivated land."

"Inspector Lu and two generals, Qi Yuanfu and Qi Yuanbi, commanded the feudal domains and small Western soldiers and horses in the north to resist the invasion of the southern captives."

"South Kunlun, there are six battalions of soldiers and horses, more than 23,000 people, the number of labor reform workers is unknown, the cultivated land is unknown, and the news is estimated to be delivered by the end of the year."

"As for Nanzhou, after His Royal Highness King Qi set up a prefecture and county, coupled with the great drought in the south last year, there are 670,000 people, six battalions of soldiers and horses are stationed, more than 1.5 million acres of cultivated land are cultivated, and grain still needs to be supplied by Nanhai Mansion in the old port."

Bi Ziyan made it clear what Zhu Youxiao wanted to know about the various things, especially the speed of development of Qi State, which made Zhu Youxiao the most shocked.

Since the Ming Dynasty officially set up the Qi State, it has only been five years now.

In just five years, Qi has already reclaimed one million mu of cultivated land, and at this rate, at most, six years later, Qi State's cultivated land will exceed 10 million mu.

Six years later...... Twenty-two years of the Apocalypse......

Zhu Youxiao unconsciously clenched his fists and frowned, but he didn't say anything.

"The minister retired ......"

Bi Ziyan saw that Zhu Youxiao did not speak, so he made a resignation and left the Qianqing Palace.

Not long after he left, Zhu Youxiao looked at the pile of songs, and couldn't help scratching his short beard with a headache.

"Where is King Qi? When will I return to Beijing? ”

He subconsciously asked Wang An, but Wang An was stunned when he heard this: "This ...... His Royal Highness has just left Beijing, and it seems that he has just arrived in Zhangjiakou, Xuanfu. ”

"According to the itinerary, I am afraid that I will not be able to return to Beijing until the end of March."

"The end of March?" Hearing Wang An say this, Zhu Youxiao only felt that the pent-up emotions in his heart were a little untenable.

Daming is too big, more than several times larger than in history.

The larger the territory, the more things there are, the more complicated they are, and the higher the requirements for the ability of the rulers.

For such a Ming Dynasty, Zhu Youxiao is not unconfident that he can handle all government affairs, but he feels that if he continues like this, sooner or later he will be exhausted to death.

In only 17 days in power, his weight has already dropped by three catties, and if he finishes three months, I am afraid that his weight will not even be able to support 16.

At this time, he missed the days in Dading Palace and Midsummer Palace.

"By the way, how is Gu Bingqian?"

Zhu Youxiao suddenly remembered one thing, this matter was Gu Bingqian's illness a few days ago.

"According to the royal envoy, if you have a stroke, you can't speak, you can't move, and you need to cultivate for a year or two to get better."

Wang An's words made Zhu Youxiao frown, but his next words made Zhu Youxiao feel uncomfortable.

"Gu Ge Lao's son resigned for his father, long live, this ......"

"Send the Imperial Doctor to take a look, if it really doesn't work, I'll talk about it then."

Wang An asked tentatively, and Zhu Youxiao also ordered people to see Gu Bingqian again.

Wang Anbi respectfully responded, and at this time, Wei Zhongxian also walked into the Heart Cultivation Hall with a smile, and took a book of music to invite Zhu Youxiao to do it:

"Long live, the Metropolitan Procuratorate dealt with more than 14,600 corrupt officials and their family files, and confiscated 726,000 taels of family property."

"Hmm...... Exile them all. Hearing that he had gained something last year, Zhu Youxiao breathed a sigh of relief and sat back in his position at the same time.

"Apart from these, are there any other movements in the Metropolitan Procuratorate?"

Zhu Youxiao's words meant something, and Wei Zhongxian also knew that the emperor was talking about Chengde and the Yanshan faction, so he shook his head: "I have never ......."

"Hmm......" responded, Zhu Youxiao no longer spoke, but lowered his head irritably to deal with the music.

Of the more than 2,000 copies left to him by Zhu Youzhen, there are still more than 800 copies left, and I don't know when such a day will be a head......

"It's here!"

At the same time, Zhu Ciran and others, who were riding bicycles in Zhejiang, also arrived in Pingyang County, Wenzhou Prefecture.

This was the first county they saw after entering Wenzhou, in the "Fish Scale Atlas", Pingyang County is a county surrounded by sandy beaches and swamps, but when Zhu Ciran and they arrived here, they saw this scene.

Looking down at the mountain pass, Pingyang County, as "the throat of two Zhejiang, the lips and teeth of Fujian", happened to be stuck on the plain out of the mountain pass.

The so-called beach swamp is completely gone, and all that can be seen is the large paddy fields that are compactly put together and the swampy beach washed out by the Feiyun River in the distance.

"Doesn't this "Fish Scale Atlas" say that the east side of Binh Duong is full of swamps? This is obviously a good field, huh? ”

Liu Shun, who walked to the top of the mountain with Zhu Ciran, was a little surprised, but Zhu Ciran said calmly:

"At the beginning of the founding of the dynasty, the eastern part of Pingyang was indeed a swamp, but after more than 260 years of vicissitudes, the sediment poured down from the Feiyun River pushed the original swamp beach outward, you see......"

Zhu Ciran pointed to a field with a somewhat dark color: "It should be the silt beach in the early years of the National Dynasty, but now it is hundreds of steps away from the sea. ”

"This "Fish Scale Atlas" has not been updated for many years, and although the new policy is being implemented, officials from all over the country are pushing and pulling each other, and the compilation speed of the new "Fish Scale Atlas" is not very fast."

"In this Pingyang county, I am afraid that the cultivated land has increased by more than 10,000 mu compared with the early years of the dynasty."

"The land is like this, but the population is ......"

Zhu Ciran looked at Pingyang County, which was surrounded by cultivated land, the scale of the city had not expanded, but around the city there were market towns that spread hundreds of steps outward.

The population of these market towns is probably not less than tens of thousands.

"The population of the eleven prefectures in Zhejiang is more than 14 million on the "Yellow Book", but along the way, I am afraid that the actual population is not less than 20 million."

Zhu Ciran's words made Liu Shun swallow his saliva, especially when he saw Zhu Ciran's calm expression, his heart was even more nervous.

"Your Highness, do you want to go in?"

Liu Shun asked cautiously, but Zhu Ciran shook his head:

"It's no longer interesting to enter the county seat and market town, and we can't see anything along the coast, so we will go to Chuzhou and Jinhua instead."

"Yes!" Hearing Zhu Ciran's words, Liu Shun could only respond.

The two of them also descended the mountain after that, and then rode their bicycles to Chuzhou and Jinhua, which are full of mountains.

In just three days, they entered the state boundary.

It has to be said that Zhejiang officials have spent great efforts on various projects in Zhejiang.

The two-zhang wide rural road is open to almost every village, and where there is no bridge, other provinces often use cement to build, because there were no bridges in these places before, but Zhejiang is different.

Here, Zhu Ciran and they can see ancient bridges that are more than 100 years old, hundreds of years, or even thousands of years old.

And the difference with other places is that the rural roads in other provinces often have few pedestrians, especially in Yunnan and Guangxi provinces, which have reached the point of driving hundreds of miles on rural roads without seeing people.

But when they arrived in Zhejiang, Zhu Ciran and they could see many oxen and horse-drawn carts driving on the country roads, and even many children of squires riding bicycles out of the city to play.

When they saw the four-wheeled bicycle ridden by Zhu Ciran and others, some people would be curious and ask, and some people would ask Zhu Ciran if he would sell it, and even bid as high as 100 taels at one time.

Zhu Ciran was deeply impressed by such a generous demeanor, but what made him even more profound was the scene after they crossed the boundary between Wenzhou and Chuzhou.

When they arrived at the boundary of Qingtian County, a village relying on a small stream appeared on the other side of the bridge.

There are mountains everywhere here, and only some land on both sides of the river valley is there, but there is not much, only more than 1,000 acres.

Zhu Ciran's deep impression of this place is due to the fact that the scale of the village is no less than that of a market town.

"Creek Village ......"

After riding across the bridge, Zhu Ciran looked at the stone monument at the head of the village and was a little embarrassed.

He got out of the car with Liu Shun and others, and asked the other two Jinyi guards to ride the car out of the village along the village road, while he walked towards the village in the distance.

The village is surrounded by mountains and is built on a high ground.

There are only more than 1,000 acres of farmland around the village, and it is impossible to open up fields any further.

But even so, the size of the village occupies a third of the river valley, which shows how many people actually lived.

"Where are you from?!"

Just as they were about to enter the entrance of the village, an old man sitting at the entrance of the village stomped on the ground with his cane and questioned them loudly.

The eastern dialect of Zhejiang is a little different from the Jianghuai official dialect of the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Ciran and the two of them were a little stunned when they heard it, but then they still guessed the meaning, so they replied in official dialect:

"Hello uncle, we are passing students, who are going to study in Hangzhou, and we are here to beg for water."

Zhu Ciran showed a sign as a student, although they couldn't understand what the old man said, but the old man could understand the official language.

He waved his hand and said in an official dialect with a strong eastern Zhejiang dialect: "There is a well in the village, you can leave if you draw water." ”

After that, the old man shouted into the distance, and said a bunch of words that Zhu Ciran didn't understand, and then they saw a young man in short clothes walking towards them.

After he arrived, he first chatted with his uncle in dialect, and then turned his head to look at Zhu Ciran and them, and said vigilantly in official words: "You follow me, and leave after fetching water." ”

"Thank you." The official language of the young people is very pure, and it can be seen that they have been systematically studied, so Zhu Ciran and they breathed a sigh of relief.

Led by the young people, they finally entered the village.

The old archway with a sense of history and the old buildings of blue bricks and stone tiles are distributed on both sides of the road, and as they gradually go deeper, they can see the ancient streets, houses, stone stele workshops, and plug doors and walls.

The walls of the local houses are all high walls made of yellow clay, and the houses have been painted with white lime after they are completed, forming the architectural characteristics of white walls and gray tiles.

Although the white walls of some houses have been mottled and peeled off, they still look majestic, and the streets and houses with a sense of history can make Zhu Ciran and them feel the extraordinary here.

"In front of us is our ancestral hall, you'd better not keep an eye on the ancestral hall."

Catching a glimpse of Zhu Ciran and Liu Shun having been looking at the village, the young man carefully reminded them, and Zhu Ciran followed his words and looked at the ancestral hall in front of them.

The cobblestone walls look very solid, and to the left of the ancestral hall there is an old stage that can still be used for listening to operas, and two large stone lions are placed at the entrance of the ancestral hall.

Judging from the mottled marks on it, these two stone lions have stayed here for a long time, and the "Zhang Ancestral Hall" with a high card in the ancestral hall also tells about the extraordinary here.

It's just a pity that due to the reminders and warnings of the young people, Zhu Ciran just glanced at it hastily and did not continue to look, but continued to move forward under the leadership of the young people.

From the ancestral hall of the Zhang clan to the water intake is a cement street that is about 100 steps long, and most of the houses on both sides of the street were built a long time ago, and the only thing that is new is the concrete floor under their feet.

Although the concrete floor is not as meaningful as the bluestone road, it does not affect the quaint beauty here.

However, the simplicity is simple, and the vigilance against outsiders has always been engraved in the hearts of the villagers of various villages in this era, especially in clan-style villages like Xiaoxi Village.

On the way to get water, there were always many men on both sides of the road looking at Zhu Ciran and Liu Shun, which made Liu Shun always vigilant.

Different from Liu Shun's vigilance, Zhu Ciran smiled generously at the passers-by on both sides, and also counted their numbers.

From the entrance of the village to the water point, a distance of more than 300 steps, Zhu Ciran counted a total of more than 400 men, if you add their family rolls, the population of Xiaoxi Village is probably no less than 2,000 people.

With a population of 2,000, this could be used as a market town anywhere, but here it is only the countryside.

"When you arrive, fetch water."

The young people spoke, and Zhu Ciran and they also saw an ancient well in the village.

Seeing this, Liu Shun stepped forward to fetch water and put it in the water bladder, while Zhu Ciran looked around.

When Liu Shun fetched good water, the young people didn't say much and sent them out of the village directly.

Zhu Ciran glanced at the back of the young man leaving, and then walked with Liu Shun to the rural road in front, and also chatted: "The population of this village is probably not less than two thousand. ”

"It's a pity that they are too wary of outsiders, otherwise I would like to ask them what these two thousand people live on, and those more than 1,000 acres of land can not support so many people."

"How about asking the village magistrate?" Liu Shun proposed, and Zhu Ciran also nodded happily.

The two came to the village road, and then saw a four-wheeled vehicle parked on the side of the road.

After getting into the car, Liu Shun ordered a brocade guard to take a token and ask the village official about the matter, while the three of them sat in the car and waited.

After about two quarters of an hour, the brocade guard returned to the side of the country road and told all the things he had heard.

Similar to what Zhu Ciran and the others saw, Xiaoxi Village only has more than 1,000 acres of cultivated land, and the biggest income of the men in the village is the income obtained by working in Wenzhou, Qingtian and other places after being busy farming.

In other words, the entire village basically survived by part-time work, and the village officials had no choice but to tell the village after learning the identity of Jinyiwei.

On paper, the village of Creek is nine hundred and thirty-seven, but in reality it is two thousand two hundred and thirty-nine.

The main reason why the village officials did not report it was that the county did not send someone to make statistics, so in order to avoid making other village officials look bad, he had no choice but not to report it.

It seems that every village official can use this rhetoric, and in the final analysis, he just follows the crowd.

"Zhejiang's population is definitely more than 14 million, I'm afraid even 30 million can't be stopped!"

After learning about the actual situation in the village, Zhu Ciran opened his mouth firmly and asked, "What is the food of the villagers?" Have you seen it? ”

"Look!" Jin Yiwei nodded and said: "It's the meal at the moment, I'll take a walk with the village official, each family is basically river shrimp and river fish, and then add a stack of soy sauce, a bucket of rice and some soup dishes." ”

"According to the price of Pumen Town, a table of food should be only thirteen or fourteen yuan."

Thirteen or fourteen Wen, five people eat, the average person is less than three Wen, such a life is not good.

"In Qingshan Village near Pumen Town, I remember that I can barely add a meat dish on the ground, can't I do it here?"

Zhu Ciran asked Jinyiwei, but the other party shook his head firmly: "No, I looked at the houses of several villagers, and there is no place to raise pigs and poultry at all." ”

"If the villagers want to eat, they can only go to the town to buy it, and the meat price in the nearby Dahe town is 26 wen for pork, 22 wen for beef, and 35 wen for mutton."

"What the village official said should be true, the people of Xiaoxi Village can only support their families by going to market towns and counties to work."

"Did you ask them why they didn't migrate?" Zhu Ciran frowned and asked, Jin Yiwei nodded and said:

"I asked, they said that overseas is dangerous, and it is not as prosperous as Zhejiang, and they are afraid that they will not even be able to eat fish and shrimp after the migration."

"Bastard!" Liu Shun scolded, but Zhu Ciran reassured: "This is caused by the inaction and non-propaganda of local village officials, and it has nothing to do with the people." ”

After that, Zhu Ciran also got on the bicycle and signaled to talk about things while riding.

Liu Shun and the others got into the car, and the bicycles were also under their pedaling, and they rushed towards Lishui, the capital of the prefecture.

While riding, Zhu Ciran spoke: "Zhejiang's problems are far more serious than those in the palace. ”

"The imperial court sent so many village officials, but these village officials did not do much to publicize the relocation, so that the people of Zhejiang did not know that the relocation would make them rich."

"The reason for not allowing relocation is, in the final analysis, because there are more people moving, and the local gentry have no tenants and no workers to call."

Zhu Ciran's words made Liu Shun grit his teeth angrily: "These squires really deserve to be killed!" ”

"It's useless to kill, there are people in the court who don't want the people of Zhejiang to relocate." Zhu Ciran was a little uncomfortable when he said this.

He knew very well that the people who did not allow the people of Zhejiang to relocate were, to put it bluntly, the old-fashioned parties under the rule of the imperial power.

For them, it is impossible for Zhu Youxiao and Zhu Youzhen to kill them all, because if they are killed and the gentry are cleaned up, then Zhu Youxiao's position will be unstable.

"No wonder my uncle has to wait for a big drought ......"

Zhu Ciran sighed, and finally understood why his uncle relied on the drought to immigrate to count the population of the three provinces south of the Yangtze River.

In the final analysis, the local gentry did not have the strength to provide disaster relief and relief to tens of millions of people in the south of the Yangtze River, so they could only rely on the imperial court.

When they asked for help, Zhu Youzhen could also reach into the three provinces south of the Yangtze River, which was much more convenient for both relocation and disaster relief.

"How many people moved from Zhejiang last year?" Thinking of this, Zhu Ciran asked Liu Shun.

"It's about 460,000, and most of them have migrated to Yingzhou."

Liu Shun responded without thinking, which made Zhu Ciran frown.

Zhu Ciran knew very well what the drought situation in Zhejiang was last year, but it was such a scale that only caused 460,000 people in Zhejiang to relocate.

460,000 people is already a lot for the provinces, but for the three provinces in the south of the Yangtze River, it is just a drop in the dime.

After 17 years of recuperation, the population of the 11 prefectures in Zhejiang is definitely about 30 million, and the migration of 460,000 people will not relieve much pressure at all.

"Uncle must know...... Otherwise, he wouldn't have sent so much grain to Jiangnan, but how did his uncle know that there would be a drought in Jiangnan......"

Zhu Ciran's heart was full of many doubts, but no one could solve his doubts.