"Jingle bell—"

"Don't squeeze, don't squeeze!"

In March, the matter of Yiling was soon reported by the hundred officials, and for this reason, many small and medium-sized squires whose property was easy to realize began to sell their property to the imperial store, so as to raise enough money and grain to relocate.

In the matter of migration, the gentry and heroes in various places chose different places.

For these gentry and heroes in the central and western provinces, they did not worry about being relocated at all, because the main object of the Ming Dynasty's migration population was the central and western provinces.

They are even more afraid of the gentry and heroes of Beizhili, after all, they originally grew up in Beizhili.

Those who have resisted the relocation are mainly the seven provinces of Beijing, including Huguang, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Nanzhili, Henan, Shandong, Fujian, and Jiangxi.

To do this, they choose different migration directions.

The direction of migration of Shandong and Henan is mainly Anxi, Beiting, Modong, Donghai and other provinces, after all, there is no miasma in these places, although it is cold, but with the money in hand, it can also hire people to help them reclaim a large amount of land.

The relocation objects of Huguang are mainly Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou.

The remaining provinces of Nanzhili, Jiangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang and other provinces all chose Nanzhou and Jiaozhi in the south.

The miasma of the southwest is something that even they are afraid of.

They would rather go to distant Nanzhou and Yingzhou than choose Jiugang and Luchuan, and although Jiaozhi is also within the range of choices, there are still relatively few people who go.

"Our lord has chartered this ship!"

"How can there be a reason to charter a boat?!"

"My lord has silver! If you love to charter a boat, you can charter a boat! ”

It was only a month before the turmoil began to ferment, and the ships in the southeast were rented and sold out.

Hundreds of thousands of squires moved to Nanzhou and Yingzhou, but due to their family's big business, the migration often required a family to rent a big ship.

Ships that could transport thousands of people were chartered by the squires in an instant, and in the face of such a situation, many people who simply wanted to move could only be left behind.

Since the government will stop immigrating in June, the people who don't want to emigrate with debts can only choose the more distant country of Qi, because the country of Qi has at least a boat to sit on.

This kind of turmoil does not feel like it has stopped, but is intensifying.

The migration of the gentry and the gentry caused panic among the tenants and the common people, who also began to compete for ships.

When many of the gentry saw this, they scolded them, but they felt that these foolish people were stupid, and scolded them for delaying their escape.

But the scolding did not affect their actions of competing for ships and fleeing overseas......

"In just two months, Huangdian has received more than 26 million acres of listing, and the immigrant population has exceeded 1.8 million, which is indeed ......"

On the third day of the fifth month, when Hong Chengchou, who was sitting in the carrying hall of the Qi Palace, didn't know what to say, Zhu Youzhen, who was sitting at the top, blew the tea in front of him, took a sip, and said unhurriedly:

"Escape well, let them escape if they want to escape, it is impossible for the court to kill so many people."

"They all fled, and the people who stayed in the Central Plains had a better life."

Zhu Youzhen's words made Hong Chengchou bow slightly, but he then raised his head and said:

"Recently, most of the officials in Yanshan have also been cautious, and it seems that they were frightened by His Highness's move."

"However, if these two or six million mu of land are purchased at a normal price, the emperor will at least get no less than 150 million taels of silver."

"Huangdian, can you take it?" Hong Chengchou asked cautiously, and Zhu Youzhen also looked at Cao Huachun when he heard the words.

I saw Cao Huachun shaking his head, obviously unable to eat the big piece of cake spit out by the gentry.

Hong Chengchou also saw his expression and actions, so he couldn't help but put down the music in his hand and said to Zhu Youzhen:

"Your Highness, these acres are less than one-tenth of the acres in the hands of the gentry, and now the gentry are selling like this, and the dynasty wants to be state-owned, so the land cannot be sold to the people, only the land can be divided."

"Such a large sum of money, even if you add the bank, I'm afraid it will be difficult to make it up."

"The suggestion of the lower officials is that maybe the land in Nanzhou, Anxi and other places can be leased and sold to the relocated gentry, and the land can be exchanged for land?"

Hong Chengchou's idea is based on the fact that he has seen the land in Luchuan, compared to the larger Ming Dynasty, most of the land in the two capitals and thirteen provinces has been completely developed, and the land in the overseas and central and southern provinces is basically undeveloped.

In this case, it is better to hand over the land to the squires to develop.

However, Zhu Youzhen did not approve of this, and was still ready to trade with the gentry in accordance with the system of land state ownership.

"You don't have to ......"

Zhu Youzhen put down the teacup, and then said:

"How much land the gentry can reclaim belongs to the imperial court, and the gentry have the right to use, but not the right to sell."

"However, the imperial court can exchange labor reformers for them as tenants."

"There are still 540,000 labor campers in Nanzhou, 1.69 million in Jiugang, and a total of 5 million labor campers in these places, including Luchuan and Jiaozhi."

"Give it to them at the price of one acre of land, and the rest of the royal store will exchange it with ploughing oxen and horses."

"A ploughing ox has three acres of land, and a horse pulls two acres of land."

The prices used by Zhu Youzhen are all the prices of cattle, horses and livestock in the south of the Yangtze River, and according to this price, Daming should be able to win this batch of fields with some silver.

"How much gold and silver are there overseas this year?" Zhu Youzhen asked Cao Huachun, and Cao Huachun also said when he heard this:

"About 120,000 taels of gold, 6,720,000 taels of silver, and copper ingots worth 600,000 taels of silver."

Nearly 14 million taels of gold and silver poured into the Ming Dynasty every year, of which 8 million taels were mined by themselves, and the remaining 6 million taels were obtained from trade.

Judging from the current population situation of the Ming Dynasty, such an input will not be able to cause inflation in a short period of time.

"There are more than 173 million people in the country this year, and this bit of silver should not be affected."

"How much silver does the royal shop have? What about banks? ”

Zhu Youzhen continued to ask, these Cao Huachun needed to check some documents.

After a few minutes, Cao Huachun walked back from the table where the document was placed, and said to Zhu Youzhen and Hong Chengchou:

"Back to His Royal Highness, a total of 150 million taels, bank deposits of more than 70 million taels, and 80 million taels from the grain sales of the imperial store, but excluding expenses, the profit is about 30 million taels."

Zhu Ciran's new policy caused grain prices to skyrocket, and as the largest institution responsible for grain trade, Huangdian's profits naturally need not be said.

From this point of view, there is still a lot of silver that Da Ming can use.

"Your Highness......" When Zhu Youzhen was thinking so, Hong Chengchou suddenly said:

"There is a drought in all parts of the country this year, not to mention the three provinces in the south of the Yangtze River, Huguang, Sichuan, Guangxi, and Guizhou have all been affected."

"In addition, the Great Wall in the north and all parts of the Yellow River have also suffered from drought, and all the 13 provinces in the original two capitals have encountered drought except for Guangdong, Fujian, Yunnan and Sichuan provinces."

"In this case, is it necessary to open the standing position to stabilize food prices?"

There are still more than 130 million stone grains in Changping, which Hong Chengchou only learned about after he arrived in the capital and joined the cabinet.

He didn't care about the life and death of the people, but he also knew that if it continued like this, the Central Plains would definitely be in turmoil.

Hong Chengchou thought that his words should make Zhu Youzhen make some adjustments, but ......

"The migration of people speaks for itself, with 1.8 million people moving in two months, and 900,000 people moving from the three provinces south of the Yangtze River."

"This year is the best opportunity to solve the densely populated Jiangnan problem."

Zhu Youjian was ruthless, he had long known that this year and next year would be the most difficult two years for Daming, and this was also his last chance to solve Jiangnan.

The twenty-first year of the Apocalypse, twenty-one years, which corresponds to the thirteenth year of Chongzhen and the fourteenth year of Chongzhen.

The reason why Zhu Youzhen is very familiar with these two years is that these two years are a critical moment for Li Zicheng's rise and a critical moment for the Ming army's battle of Songjin.

These three events may seem unrelated, but they are actually implicated.

For example, the battle of Songjin, although it was defeated by Chongzhen's urging war, but the greater reason lies internally.

Most people in later generations mistakenly thought that after Hong Chengchou arrived, Chongzhen urged him to fight quickly, but this was not the case.

The Battle of Songjin was fought from February of the 12th year of Chongzhen to April of the 15th year of Chongzhen, when Hong Chengchou was captured, and it was fought for more than three years.

Chongzhen urged Hong Chengchou to start a war in July of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, and it had been two years and four months since Hong Chengchou supervised Liaodong, that is to say, Hong Chengchou led an army of more than 100,000 to stop in Ningyuan for two and a half years.

Chongzhen showed his greatest trust in this battle, and he insisted enough, and the last person he gave two years to was Yuan Chonghuan.

Therefore, when Hong Chengchou was given two years and four months to prepare, but found that Hong Chengchou was not ready, it was normal for Chongzhen to be anxious, and the reason for his urgency was in the pass.

In the thirteenth and fourteenth years of Chongzhen, nearly eighty percent of the country suffered from drought, and a large number of people did not say anything about thieves, and the Ming Dynasty's finances began to collapse.

The heavily relied on Tian Fu could no longer be collected, and deserters appeared in the four northwest towns responsible for encircling and suppressing the Liukou, and all the deserters took refuge under Li Zicheng's command.

Li Zicheng and others, who were rogues, were blessed by misfortune, and used the Northwest Frontier Army to form an old battalion, and relied on the tactics of "three walls" to defeat the Ming Dynasty's Guannai Field Army successively.

In January of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng conquered Luoyang, killed Zhu Changxun, the king of Fu, and besieged Kaifeng.

The drought in Chongzhen's fourteen years has not abated, so that the Ming army could not harvest grain in the Central Plains, and the army was hungry and short of horses, while Li Zicheng obtained grain by strangling the landlords and joined forces with Luo Rucai.

The two mercenaries had millions of mercenaries, killed Fu Zonglong, the governor of the Ming Dynasty, in Xiangcheng, killed 60,000 Ming troops, and more than 40 prefectures and counties such as Shangshui and Nanyang.

Taxes could not be collected, land taxes could not be collected, and nearly one-third of the Central Plains Field Army was wiped out.

This is why Chongzhen urged Hong Chengchou to send troops, because if he didn't send troops to complete the Battle of Songjin, then Li Zicheng would become the emperor, and if he wanted to encircle and suppress him, he could only do it within one or two years.

Therefore, Chongzhen needs Hong Chengchou to win the battle of Songjin, and then lead his troops back to the pass to encircle and suppress Li Zicheng.

The 13th year of Chongzhen and the 14th year of Chongzhen, the two years with the most serious drought, were the two years when the Ming Dynasty was the most unable to collect taxes, the two years when the people were the most painful, and the two years when Li Zicheng rose and Hong Chengchou failed miserably.

】

This natural disaster directly led to the failure of the Ming Dynasty in the battle on two fronts inside and outside the Great Wall, if it was a line, then the Ming Dynasty could hold out for a few more years, but the key was that both roads failed.

This was the only time that the Ming army was defeated in two ways, and the result of the defeat of the two roads doomed the Ming Dynasty's national fortunes to enter the countdown.

Zhu Youzhen wants to use these two years to make a fuss, which is also the idea he set from the beginning.

It's just that the executor has changed from him to Zhu Ciran, and Zhu Ciran's policy was not too ruthless, but with the natural disasters of the past two years, it is a bit vicious.

Under the condition that the two Beijing and nine provinces were hit by drought, it was forbidden to sell grain to stabilize the grain, and the price of grain was raised to a price of more than one tael of silver and one stone, so that the people could not afford to eat grain in the Central Plains and had to migrate.

This move is tantamount to eating human blood steamed buns, but this steamed bun, Zhu Youzhen has to eat it.

If he doesn't eat, he can't fundamentally solve the problems of the three provinces in the south of the Yangtze River.

If the problems of the three provinces are not solved, they will still suck down Sichuan, Huguang, and the north as they did in history.

Once something happens in the south of the Yangtze River, the situation in the north that has to be buried with the north cannot be improved.

"This year's drought is like this, not to mention that the imperial court railway has been regarded as a cash-for-work service, and the field grain supply after the autumn harvest alone is a problem."

After pondering, Zhu Youzhen said to Hong Chengchou: "All prefectures and counties that have suffered from drought this year will be exempt from taxes for one year ......."

"The lower official receives the order......" Hearing Zhu Youzhen say this, Hong Chengchou knew that this year's Daming tax may be cut in half.

But even so, there is nothing he can do, who let the drought be like this, and he can't stop it?

As for the people, they can only suffer for a while......

"Woo-"

When Hong Chengchou responded, the whistle of the train sounded not far from the fields of Henan.

Summer was supposed to be hot, everyone knew it, but they didn't expect that the weather in the twenty years of the apocalypse exceeded their imagination.

After a few spring rains in the spring, there has been no heavy rain in Henan.

The sun in the sky hung in the sky like a fireball poured with oil, scorching in the sky, exuding scorching fire.

Even the remaining shred of obscured clouds were extinguished in the steaming of the sun.

Zhizhi, who was suffering from heat stroke, hid under the elbow and arm of the dried tree, and was so hot that he shouted weakly.

The earth was roasted by the sun and cracked, and even the clumps of wheat and rice dried up.

A scorching heat wave blew, and the dry wheat and rice broke one after another.

"One-two! One or two! One or two! ”

At the edge of the fields, hundreds of old farmers are constantly stepping on the mechanism that controls the speed of the water wheel, trying to pump the river water into the fields to irrigate their crops.

Behind them, the river that had once overflowed the ridges from time to time was now only the riverbed, which was less than a foot wide.

Even if there was only this little water left, the old farmers were reluctant to let it go, so they stopped it and irrigated the crops.

It's just that everyone knows that it's only early summer, and once it enters the dog days, the river will also be cut off.

But they did not want to give up hope, and struggled in the fields, waiting for the heavy rain with the anxious people.

It's a pity that there is no miracle, and there is still not a drop of rain in Henan in April, which is desperate.

In the helpless waiting, the crops and people gradually became closer to the once hated dark clouds and the merciless cold wind, and they were looking forward to the arrival of the clouds and the wind all the time.

"It's coming! Here it comes! ”

"It's getting dark!"

"God, hurry up and get it raining! I beg you, old man! ”

The dark clouds came, the cold wind came, the people in the fields knelt down and kowtowed, during which a heavy rain fell from the sky, even if their hair and face were knocked into the mud, they never saw the heavy rain......

They look up at the sky like "crazy", and there are tens of millions of people like them.

Every province, every province, every prefecture, every county, every village and town......

All the people who were busy in the fields were expecting a heavy rain.

However, as time passed, people's hopes slowly turned yellow like the leaves of the crops, and the heavy rain they had hoped for did not come until May.

Not only that, but in May, the drought spread further, and no land in the entire north was spared.

The paddy fields have dried up, the riverbeds have dried up, the trees have died, the crops have turned to powder, and the people are emaciated with hunger.

By this time, everyone knew that it would be impossible to grow food from the ground this year.

As a result, in the last month of the official migration, the people in the provinces who had suffered from drought began their own "self-help" path.

Their self-help is to take the migration token and get on the train to Anxi and Beiting.

Today's train is still repaired to Shazhou, and as long as they arrive in Shazhou, they can follow the team to Yinzhou Mansion (Hami) in Anxi, and then go through the oasis to settle down.

As the formulator of this policy, Zhu Ciran knows very well how hard the people's lives are.

He came to the train station of the Beijing West Railway Station, where he was full of scolding, apparently they all thought that if Zhu Ciran had not set the end of the migration in June, they would not have rushed so much.

In the face of these scoldings, Zhu Ciran didn't say anything, just walked out of the train station, returned to Beijing Xicheng, and stopped at a restaurant.

"Let's go in and eat......"

Zhu Ciran walked into the restaurant with Gu Yinxi, Liu Shun, and Zhang Xiu.

This restaurant is where Zhu Ciran used to come before, not to mention that the tables and tables were full, but they could also fill the first floor.

But right now, not only do there only have one or two tables of guests on the second floor, but there are only three tables of guests on the first floor.

As soon as Zhu Ciran and the others sat down, the shopkeeper walked over with a look of embarrassment and a menu.

"Master Zhang, the price of this price has risen, and the price of our vegetables has also risen, look at ......"

The shopkeeper handed over a menu with all kinds of dishes written on it, but the prices have increased by two to three percent.

"It's still the original dishes, it's okay......"

Zhu Ciran reluctantly squeezed out a smile and handed the menu back, and the shopkeeper finally breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this, and quickly smiled and nodded, and then asked people to prepare.

Zhu Ciran's four favorite dishes are scrambled eggs with tomatoes, scrambled potato wedges, steamed chicken with five flavors, and mutton bone soup with yuan sauce.

Four dishes and four bowls of rice were the lunch for the four of them.

Maybe he just went to the train station and saw the miserable situation of the people, but in short, Zhu Ciran and his party didn't talk much.

It wasn't until he checked out that Zhu Ciran sighed when he saw the bill of one hundred and thirty-two wen.

"Uh...... The price of this rice has risen, you know, so the price of rice has also risen a little, if you feel uncomfortable, I will wipe you a zero, how about 130 wen? ”

The shopkeeper was afraid of offending his old patron, but Zhu Ciran shook his head, asked Liu Shun to give the silver, and left after saying that he would come back next time.

The four of them got into the carriage back to the palace, and as soon as they got on the car, Zhu Ciran said:

"In the past, eating such a meal, you and I spent a hundred yuan at most, but now it has risen by thirty percent."

"Do you think there is a problem with my national policy, or is it really because of natural disasters?"

Zhu Ciran suddenly felt that he had done something wrong? Perhaps his uncle's migration policy is more suitable for the national conditions of the Ming Dynasty.

However, as soon as he spoke, Du Yinxi shook his head and denied:

"Your Highness is not wrong in what you did, natural disasters are something we can't resist, and the difficulty of this year is in natural disasters, not Your Highness's fault."

"If there is really a mistake, it is that His Highness failed to implement this policy a year ahead of schedule and relocate more people."

"Since last year, the dynasty has migrated nearly 4 million people to various places, and now there are more than 300,000 people in Anxi and Beiting, and there are more than 300,000 people in Yu alone, and there are even more in various provinces."

Du Yinxi paused, took a breath, and continued:

"These four million people have migrated out, and the Central Plains will lose four million food rations."

"If there is no great drought this year, the people will be able to have a fat year, so why is it wrong for Your Highness?"

"According to the officials, the immediate priority is to postpone the termination of the relocation until the end of the year, but we should not say it directly, but should use the drought as an excuse to express grace time so that people can migrate to escape the disaster."

"If the dynasty can move to the north and south this year with the same number of people as last year, then the northern and southern borders of the dynasty will be consolidated, and only the two provinces of Anxi will remain."

The fact that Du Yinxi can say such things is enough to show how large the scale of the population migration of the Ming Dynasty is.

Relying on railways, steamships, and sea-bound wooden sailing ships, more than 4 million people were migrated in a year and a half, which is worthy of being recorded in history in any era.

In Du Yinxi's view, this should be a meritorious achievement, because the departure of more than 4 million people has left nearly 60 million acres of ownerless cultivated land for the people left on this land.

This cultivated land will be distributed to the people by the local government after the disaster, and the people who remain will live a good life for the people of Sichuan and Yunnan.

Plugging Yinxi's words enlightened Zhu Ciran, and he also took a deep breath in this regard:

"Maybe you're right, since I'm in charge of the government and supervising the country for my father and Uncle Qi Wang, I can't be a woman."

"It is enough for me to know that this is a good thing for the people......"

He regained his previous calmness, raised his head and resolutely ordered Liu Shun and the others:

"After returning to the palace, tell the Migration Division, the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Households, and the Ministry of Rites ......"

"Due to the great drought from the sky, tens of millions of people were homeless and had no land to cultivate, and the termination of the migration was postponed until before the 21st New Year of the Apocalypse."

"During the period, the government is responsible for the money and food expenses needed for the relocation of the people, and if there are those who dare to exploit the people's rations, they will be arrested and punished by the nine tribes!"

Zhu Ciran was ruthless, and even said something that the Qi King didn't often say, such as the Nine Clans.

Compared with King Qi, he was more ruthless in the face of corrupt officials.

It's just that when he still cares about the migration of the people, the thoughts of the officials are all on those gentry and heroes who refuse to move......