After entering the city, Zhu Yuanzhang didn't care about anything else, and directly asked the three envoys of Shanxi Province to explain clearly what was going on.

Obviously, the crops he ordered to be promoted for free will still be monopolized by people at high prices?

The three of them finally told the truth, at first, no one wanted to plant the seeds of potatoes and sweet potatoes, and the three of them could only let some relatively large local households plant them.

But after the first year of planting, these people found that the yields of these two crops were amazingly high and the profits were terrible, so they monopolized the seeds of potatoes and sweet potatoes on the market at high prices.

If ordinary people really get the seeds of potatoes and sweet potatoes, they will even send people to their homes to intimidate them, forcing them to give them the seeds they have obtained.

These actions are completely in accordance with the law, and even the government has nothing to do.

The three of them tried a lot of ways, but they couldn't resist the resistance of the local gentry.

Even at the level of the government, with the cooperation of these gentry, most of the land in these people's homes was planted with potatoes and sweet potatoes, which was originally a good thing.

Half-pushed and half-pushed, they acquiesced, as long as they could ensure Shaanxi's military rations, they didn't care so much.

"Can't you think of a better way?!"

Zhu Yuanzhang was a little angry, and he was even more disgusted with the situation of the local clan.

The three of them looked at each other and said in unison.

"The ministers are incompetent."

If there is really a way, they don't want to do this, once they are labeled as incompetent, they don't even want to turn over in the officialdom under the quilt.

"Is the same true everywhere else?"

The political envoy of Shaanxi hesitated and said in a low voice.

"As far as the minister knows, most of them are like this......"

Zhu Yuanzhang sneered.

"According to what you say, the benefits of promoting new crops have not been popularized to the people at all, but have been taken away by these big households, and you local officials are really rice buckets!"

The three of them trembled, knelt on the ground and trembled and did not dare to speak.

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't want to say anything more, what use did he want to use the people who couldn't even control the big families under his rule?

Wouldn't expecting them to govern the government become more and more chaotic?

"In addition, Shaanxi has not seen any increase in household registration for many years, what's going on? Have you been encroached upon by local tyrants and concealed from the population? ”

It was still the political envoy of Shaanxi Province who said with a bitter face.

"If this is not the case, since Your Majesty reigned at the Imperial Pole, he has repeatedly checked the local acres of land, and then implemented major policies such as apportionment into the acreage, and there is absolutely no place to hide the population.

It's just that the northwest area is really dilapidated, and it can't carry so many people, and the minister has seen with his own eyes that many local people will choose to drown when they give birth to children, and they can't support them! ”

Zhu Yuanzhang was shocked in his heart, although he knew that the situation in the northwest was not good, and he could see these situations along the way, but he really didn't expect the situation to deteriorate like this.

But Zhu Yuanzhang knows even more that in such a matter, the political envoy of Shaanxi Province does not dare to deceive himself.

If the household registration population under the rule of the official is almost not growing, people will be suspicious of the person's level of governance.

This is like the GDP-only theory for a period of time in later generations, such a standard is of course unsatisfactory, but it is always much stronger than no standard.

If there is no unified standard to measure the level of governance of officials, is it true that only the length of service of officials is judged?

The Shaanxi political envoy in front of him clearly knew this, but he still said such things to him, obviously Shaanxi really couldn't hold on.

Zhu Yuanzhang rubbed his head a little tiredly, and didn't speak for a long time, just when the political envoy of Shaanxi was scared half to death, Zhu Yuanzhang finally spoke up again.

"Okay, I know about this matter, and in the future, I will temporarily exempt the local officials in the northwest from the assessment of the growth of the tiger's mouth."

The three governors of Shaanxi burst into tears and knelt on the ground to thank them. It can be seen that they are also not lightly pitted by this incident.

Zhu Yuanzhang stayed in Lanzhou, repaired for a few days, and rushed all the way back to Daming from Mobei to suffer a lot, although he could hold on to this old bone, but a large number of officials in the DPRK and China could not withstand it.

Even if Zhu Yuanzhang thinks that these people are waste, he can't help but give time to repair, otherwise he will inevitably be suspected of mistreating officials.

Zhu Yuanzhang took advantage of this time to frequently summon these courtiers around him, trying to come up with a way to change the situation in the northwest and the promotion of potatoes and sweet potatoes.

After discussing for a long time, the only suggestion that everyone could come up with was to move the people from the northwest outward, but in this way, the strength of the entire northwest was a little weaker, and it was really not conducive to the border defense of the northwest.

Zhu Yuanzhang still did not make up his mind after all, once there is a problem in the border defense, the entire northwest will be eroded, and then it will not only be a problem of the people drowning babies.

You must know that the border defense of the northwest region almost needs to resist foreign enemies from three directions, and it is natural that the people's livelihood will wither.

Even if Zhu Yuanzhang has made great efforts and spent a lot of strength, wanting to reorganize the dilapidated Northwest is only a drop in the bucket after all.

No matter how big the investment is, it can't hide the general trend that it is impossible for the northwest to restore the prosperity of the Han and Tang Dynasties, which makes Zhu Yuanzhang feel a sense of powerlessness in his heart.

After all, he is only an emperor, not an immortal, and he can change the climate, land and other conditions of a place with a single word.

As for the promotion of potatoes and sweet potatoes, we can only use the power of the state to organize a number of military cantonments to conduct demonstrations in various places, and to bring down the prices of potatoes and sweet potatoes, so that those wealthy families will not be profitable and take the initiative to give up the monopoly of seeds.

But at the same time, Zhu Yuanzhang didn't think that these big families would be so conscious, and at the same time issued an edict that dared to hoard and raid the house.

Only with knives will these big families obediently obey the orders of the imperial court.

After agreeing on this, Zhu Yuanzhang did not stop much in the northwest, but hurriedly walked on the cement road and rushed to Nanjing.

The reason why he left in such a hurry was also because Zhu Yuanzhang was a little afraid to look at it, and he couldn't even bear to look at the people in the northwest.

Zhu Yuanzhang felt from the bottom of his heart that he was ashamed of the people in the northwest, and it was clear that he had been in power for more than 20 years, but the situation in the northwest still did not improve.

This is not a small blow to him, what can he do if he can't do it?

It's just that I don't look at it.

Along the way, he slowly walked to the vicinity of Luoyang, Henan, and Zhu Yuanzhang stopped again, on the one hand, because this was the future capital of the Ming Dynasty that he had chosen.

On the other hand, it is because it is already summer, the sky is raining heavily, and the Yellow River is about to flood.

Although Zhu Yuanzhang has also been tinkering with the Yellow River waterways, he rarely repairs the Yellow River waterways on a large scale, either because of anything else or because he has no money in his hands.

During this time, the imperial court had money, and the first step was to renovate the Huai River waterway, who let his old Zhu family's ancestral tomb be there, and the Yellow River could only be put back.