On the twenty-ninth day of April, the last day of April in the first year of Hongwu, at Dinghai Port, Zhu Yuan finally sent away the second batch of grain ships this year, and also sent away this April.

This month, a lot actually happened in the Central Plains.

The first major event should start from the end of March.

Sensing that Zuo Junbi, the former Red Army general who jointly defended Bianliang, had the intention of surrendering, Li Keyi, the general of Bianliang in the Yuan court, once again adopted the method of clearing the wilderness and drove the people of Bianliang to flee westward in advance. So, on the twenty-ninth day of March, Zuo Junbi dedicated Bianliang City.

Taking Bianliang not only has great political significance, but the battle situation in Henan is also completely inclined to the side of the Ming army.

Subsequently, on the first day of the fourth month, on the southern front, Liao Yongzhong arrived in Dongguan, and He Zhen, the Zuo Cheng of the Yuanjiang West Province entrenched in Guangzhou, led his officials and subordinates to meet him and formally surrendered, and the last slightly powerful separatist force on the southeast coast was destroyed.

There are no more major problems on the southern front.

On the eighth day of April, the Battle of Taerwan.

The Ming army took Bianliang without blood, and did not stop, quickly marched westward, out of the Tiger Prison Pass, and fought against Taerwan with Pingzhang and Yuanliang King Aluwen of Henan Province.

At that time, the two armies arrayed Luoshui for more than ten miles north and south, waving flags and beating drums.

The deputy general of the conquest often encountered the spring single cavalry into the enemy formation, in the face of more than 20 horsemen to gather the lance, fearless, the loss of its forward, the Yuan army because of the sharp spirit, the capture of the general Xu Da took the opportunity to lead the crowd, the Yuan army retreated in chaos, the Ming army chased the enemy for more than 50 miles, and the killing and capture were not counted.

After this battle, Aluwen, the king of Yuanliang, surrendered, and Li Keyi retreated to Shaanxi.

Henan Pingding.

The news was transmitted back to Jinling, and Lao Zhu sent an envoy to Henan to commend the troops and order the Zhongshu to audit the military merits. Only the deputy general of the conquest, Chang Yuchun, ushered in the emperor's close ministers and privately passed on the precepts: "You are a general, and you are not expected to compete with the junior colonel, so you should quit it." ”

Then there are the two things at the end of the month.

On April 23, Shandong Xingzhongshu Province was set up, and Wang Guangyang, who participated in the politics of Jiangxi Province, was transferred to Shandong Province to participate in politics.

Jiangxi Province is temporarily vacant in participating in politics.

On the twenty-fourth day of April, Mingzhou was the time of strong wind and rain, and the governor of Tongtong knew that Feng Sheng took Tongguan, and the Tongguan guards Li Siqi and Zhang Sidao left without a fight. After taking Tongguan, Jinling issued an order, asking the armies to stop their westward advance, make every effort to stabilize Henan, and prepare for the northward advance.

On the twenty-fifth day of April, Mingzhou, the wind stopped raining.

April twenty-seven, Xiaoman.

For Mingzhou fishermen, Xiaoman is a very important day, usually around this time, the large yellow croaker school from the south all the way to the Zhoushan archipelago area, the largest annual sea fishing begins.

On 28 April, the day before the second batch of grain convoys set off for Shandong, the sea fishing fleet led by Li Guisuo, who had been delayed in Xiangshan by the wind and rain, finally returned to Dinghai smoothly.

Dinghai City East Wharf.

The commander in charge of the second batch of grain convoys was the commander of the battalion Haiwei.

In addition, Freehand's brother Joan also accompanied him this time.

Through the previous exploits accumulated in the capture of pirates, coupled with the expansion of the battalion and Haiwei, Qiao An was successfully promoted from 100 households to 1,000 households, and this time the navy in charge of the 1,000 specialized escorts was to some extent the same as Hua Gao's nephew Hua Yue in the planned third batch of grain transportation fleets, and he was also the second-in-command.

As long as this grain transportation is successful, Qiao An will naturally accumulate another meritorious service.

However, Zhu Yuan didn't plan to let Qiao An continue to be promoted too quickly.

Always avoid suspicion.

Seeing that the figure of the second batch of grain convoys gradually disappeared, Zhu Yuan turned around and left the long causeway at the east wharf of the city. While talking about things with the Huagao people next to him, there were also a lot of things in his head.

The first convoy of grain should also return in a few days.

Zhu Yuan has been paying attention to the situation in Shandong.

When the first batch of grain convoys arrived in Shandong, the governor and the governor Kang Maocai originally hoped that some of the ships would be able to pass through the inland canal and then go to Jinan, but then found that it would not work.

The minimum 500 material sea ship is still too big.

Because, the canal from Jiaozhou to Jinan ...... Strictly speaking, it is not a canal.

The only official canal on the Shandong Peninsula is the Jiaolai Canal, which runs through the peninsula from north to south, which was specially dug by the Yuan Dynasty in the early years in order to prevent shipping ships from bypassing the Shandong Peninsula, but in recent years, it has also been seriously silted up and can no longer be used.

Even if it is dredged, the grain fleet passes through the Shandong Peninsula, and then enters Jinan from the northern outlet of the Yellow River in the Bohai Bay, the whole journey is nearly 1,000 miles, which is not cost-effective

As for Jiaozhou to Jinan, it is mainly a waterway that crosses many inland rivers between Jiaozhou and Jinan, and it is expected that after dredging, it can run a flat-bottomed river boat with a maximum of one or two hundred materials. Moreover, there is no need to consider the high winds and waves at sea to transport grain by inland waterway, and there is no shortage of people in Shandong.

It was not possible to go deep into the inland river, but after unloading the grain ships, the first batch of grain convoys did not return immediately. On the one hand, we must also consider the weather and wind direction, on the other hand, it is also Zhu Yuan's side, I hope that the fleet will not come back empty, whether it is minerals or hemp materials, in short, what can be brought back, bring back something.

According to the news obtained from land, in addition to docking in Jiaozhou, part of the fleet also went to Haizhou.

Haizhou is not far from Yizhou, only more than 100 miles away.

At that time, Wang Xuan of Yizhou also conquered Haizhou, and Yizhou produced both coal and iron, and was rich in mineral deposits. Moreover, Haizhou itself, as well as the crystal deposits that Zhu Yuan has never forgotten.

The governor and the governor learned about the needs of Mingzhou, and personally coordinated with them to divert 20,000 displaced people who had gathered around Jiaozhou to rush to Yizhou, which was also another kind of work-for-relief, and the displaced people mined coal and iron ore in Yizhou, transported to Haizhou, and delivered minerals in exchange for food.

In addition, the hemp seeds collected in Mingzhou have not yet been sent to Shandong, and Kang Maocai, who received the news in advance and received the approval of Lao Zhu, has also organized manpower to widely sow ramie and other crops along both sides of the river from Jiaozhou to Jinan, and it is expected that the first crop will be harvested this autumn.

Seriously, after receiving these news continuously, Zhu Yuan's feeling is that Kang Maocai should be allowed to participate in the politics of Shandong Province, not 'Mr. Good' Wang Guangyang.

Since he was once able to get the title of 'loyal and diligent uncle', Wang Guangyang's ability must be fine, but Zhu Yuan is not familiar with this after all, and the more important thing is that I don't know if this person will mess around and destroy Kang Maocai's original arrangement after accepting Shandong government affairs.

However, since he is 'Mr. Yes', Zhu Yuan feels that the problem will not be too big.

On Mingzhou's side, when encountering differences, he is stronger, and Wang Guangyang will most likely not be willing to conflict with him, who is the popular emperor's favorite minister.

The second batch of grain convoys was sent, and the third batch should be considered next.

The third batch of grain ships will not be the first to return later, and that group, both men and ships, will need to rest after a long voyage.

Fortunately, there is really no shortage of boats.

Not to mention the important coastal towns of Hangzhou, Mingzhou, Wenzhou and Taizhou are all continuing to build and launch new ships under the operation of the Yinghai Division, and in the south, the captured ships are also continuously sent under Lao Zhu's strict orders.

Let's just say that Liao Yongzhong just captured Guangzhou, He Zhen and other Yuan court departments, and more than 700 ships were confiscated.

Earlier, the various ministries habitually kept the ships for themselves, but now because of Lao Zhu's attitude, no one has hidden them privately, at least not too much, and most of them will be sent to Mingzhou obediently.

Therefore, it is back to what Zhu Yuan has been worrying about recently.

Hemp.

Lack of hemp!

Since there are more ships, the third batch of grain fleets, Zhu Yuan thought about it, and then wrote with Lao Zhu of Jinling and decided to increase the transportation volume.

The grain is still 200,000 stones.

This time, however, the plan is to increase the catch by 100,000 quintals.

The total can be said to be 300,000 koku.

In fact, if there are enough manpower, Zhu Yuan still prefers to keep the volume of 200,000 stones unchanged each time.

Small amounts multiple times.

This minimizes risk.

The problem is that there is not enough manpower to use it.

After recalculation, an additional 100,000 quintals of fish catch only needs to be sent to less than 2,000 people, instead of 5,000 people in proportion, which is equivalent to saving manpower.

Increasing the volume requires more ships, but there is still a lot to spare.

Zhu Yuan's plan is to devote himself entirely to sea fishing.

There is no shortage of boats for sea fishing, and relatively speaking, there is not much shortage of people, so there is a shortage of fishing nets.

Without nets, what kind of fishing?

Still have to fight!

Zhu Yuan is already asking people to figure out a way.

For example, fishing.

When it comes to fishing, in the concept of ordinary people, it is often one person with one rod and one day at a time.

This is not the case at sea.

The efficiency of sea fishing is not low, especially in this era, the marine fish are abundant, and if you specialize in catching big fish, you can find the location of the fish, and it is easy for each laborer to complete a task a day.

Leaving the wharf, Zhu Yuan and Huagao came to the other side of the Yongjiang River in the west of the city.

This is the fireworks bird.

Yinghaiwei built a number of arched kilns on this side of the territory belonging to the rear of the barracks, not many, only ten.

The kiln is one zhang high, one zhang five zhang wide, and three zhang long.

Or because of the lack of material.

In this era, burning bricks was also very expensive, just fuel, so that most ordinary people could only live in mud houses for the rest of their lives.

Zhu Yuan is not so extravagant.

Therefore, except for a small number of experimental kilns with bricks, most of which are still mud, the rest are still decided to bake in the open air.

Here I have to talk about the harvest of the sea fishing team that returned from Xiangshan yesterday.

According to preliminary estimates, the official catch was 17,000 quintals and the private fish catch was 21,000 quintals, with a total of 38,000 quintals, or 3.8 million catties.

It was much higher than Zhu Yuan's initial expectations.

Zhu Yuan's basic expectation is that the official fishing is 8,000 quintals, and the people are probably equivalent to the official.

In fact, it brought back nearly five times as many fish.

However, this is actually not too satisfying, because of the lack of hemp, because of the hurricane in the last few days, not only could not go to sea, but also caused a batch of fish to be processed in time and rotted, which means that the entire fishing team lost at least 10,000 quintals of fish.

The use of 'quintal' always lacks some impact, which is converted into a more commonly recognized weighing unit, which is 1 million catties.

In any case, it was a success.

After all, it was only an experimental sea fishing, and in fact, it had exceeded the total amount of 3 million catties in a normal year during the Yuan Dynasty. Therefore, Zhu Yuan also wrote to Lao Zhu for the first time.

In addition to detailing the catch, he also mentioned the role of Lighthouse Harbor as a warning and hedge for fishermen during the hurricane.

The importance of infrastructure can be seen.

Therefore, Zhu Yuan's suggestion is that the government also needs to increase investment in relevant aspects.

Besides, a total of 38,000 quintals of fish were caught, and Yinghai Division won 32,000 quintals of them, equivalent to 3.2 million catties.

Speaking of which, the fishing tax part, according to the tax rate set by Zhu Yuan before, is only 510 quintals, because although there are many private boats, the volume is not large, and the total load is only more than 50,000 yuan, and 1 quintal of fish is directly collected for every 100 materials, so it is 510 quintals.

There are not many resold by the Salt Transportation Division here.

Even though Zhu Yuan gave the bottom line, the official directly confiscated the fresh fish for pickling, and reduced the burden of the people to buy salt, but the Mingzhou Salt Transportation Branch followed the south, and more than 150 salt goods were still sold in the process of sea fishing.

Because it is sold directly to fishermen, according to the final sale price, the silver is equivalent to more than 1,500 taels.

The fishermen didn't have so much money, so they still paid the catch directly, and the Mingzhou Salt Transportation Branch transferred the catch to the Yinghai Division on the spot in exchange for silver money in accordance with the agreement with the Yinghai Division.

Regarding the salt policy, since it is involved, Zhu Yuan has also paid attention to it recently.

At present, the terminal retail salt price set by the Ming Dynasty is 10 taels of silver, and the discount is 120,000 yuan, which is 30 wen a catty of salt.

It's expensive.

However, compared to the Yuan Dynasty, it is much cheaper.

The price of salt set by the Yuan court in the early days was 10 taels of silver, which decreased slightly in the middle period, and in the later period, financial difficulties, the salt price began to increase significantly, reaching up to the extent of 200 banknotes and a salt introduction, although the depreciation of the Yuan court banknotes in the later period was serious, but when converted, the salt sold to the people exceeded 300 Wen per catty.

The ultra-high salt price has led to the flood of illegal salt, and another result of the butterfly is the rise of Zhang Shicheng and Fang Guozhen, two major illegal salt dealers.

The terminal retail price is as high as 10 taels of silver, how much can the Ming court get?

Not much, only 6 pieces of silver.

This is the official regulation that every salt import needs to pay to the imperial court at the moment, and as for the rest, all of them are counted as consumption.

Zhu Yuan felt that this 'consumption' was too great.

Referring to the data of the Yuan Dynasty, according to the current population of 50 million, Zhu Yuan can roughly calculate that the annual demand for salt goods in the entire Central Plains is about 2 million. Of course, it is a big introduction of 400 catties, so the official can get about 1.2 million taels of taxes.

This is not much different from Zhu Yuan's previous understanding of the Ming Dynasty's annual salt tax revenue of 1.37 million yuan last year, when it was still Xiwu.

However, it is much lower than the previous dynasties, whether it is the Yuan Dynasty or the Song Dynasty.

According to the data collected by Zhu Yuan recently, the salt tax in the Song Dynasty could reach more than 17 million yuan. In memory, the highest salt tax in the Ming Dynasty was only about 2 million taels of silver. It can be said that it is much lower than that of the previous and subsequent dynasties.

I have to say that this is another important fiscal policy mistake of Lao Zhu.

Just like another Zhu Yuan happened to remember the almost negligible tea tax, Lao Zhu's thoughts, Zhu Yuan could see, very simple small peasant thoughts.

The court collects less taxes, and the people can have more wealth.

Actually, both this and not so.

If it really benefits all the people, Zhu Yuan is also happy to see all kinds of low tax rates, but Zhu Yuan is also very clear about what the actual situation is.

In short, if there is time for the salt tax in the future, it is better to plan carefully.

And, of course, the fishing tax.

Calculated that the tax rate of 510 quintals is less than one-fortieth compared to the total of 21,000 quintals of fish caught by the private sector, which is also too low. In the future, when the time is right, it will also need to be re-planned.