After Liu Yan returned to Jinan, he was blocked by Xun Jingyun, deputy minister of the Shogunate War Department: "Governor, the arable land that should be distributed by the officers and men of the new army and garrison army in various places is insufficient, and some military dependents have even only been allocated more than ten acres of arable land, which is a big problem!" ”

"When the new policy was implemented before, didn't the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Households collect a large amount of cultivated land from the gentry, officials, and merchants in various places, some of which were purchased at a low price, some were recovered, and some were voluntarily abandoned. Why is there not enough arable land now? ”

Xun Jingyun said: "The subordinates have verified with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Households, and they have indeed obtained a lot of cultivated land, but the catastrophe in various parts of Shandong, there are countless displaced people and disaster victims in various places, and all localities must resettle the people and resume production. When it was the turn of the officers and men of the New Army and the garrison army to distribute cultivated land, there was not much cultivated land transferred from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Households. ”

Liu Yan frowned, the promise he had made must be fulfilled, otherwise he would lose his trust to the people, which was also a heavy blow to the morale of the army.

So Liu Yan said: "Immediately send someone to Qingzhou Mansion and call Zhang Lei back." ”

"In addition, the military headquarters of the shogunate immediately raised some money and grain, calculated according to the amount of 50 mu per household, and first distributed the income from 50 mu of cultivated land to those military families who did not receive arable land on a monthly basis."

"Yes."

Xun Jingyun suddenly had an idea, and said: "Governor, my subordinates think that what the governor said is a good way to directly solve the current problem." If there is not enough arable land, it would be good to pay money and grain to military dependents directly on a monthly basis. ”

Liu Yan shook his head and said, "This method has been thought of before, but it is the most

Later, he denied it. ”

"Why?"

"If you think about it, the new army and the garrison had 150,000 horses, and even if one-third of the military dependents were not allocated arable land, the shogunate would have to bear the cost of 50,000 households. In the future, as the army continues to expand, this expenditure will continue to increase, and the burden will become heavier and heavier. ”

"In addition, directly giving money and food to military dependents will also arouse the jealousy of those who have been allocated farmland, and will also make military families accustomed to reaching out to the shogunate to ask for money, forming inertia."

"The most serious thing is that with this method, it means that at least 50,000 households will no longer farm and produce, and they will be completely supported, which will also be a great blow to the recovery of people's livelihood in Shandong!"

Xun Jingyun couldn't imagine that there were so many drawbacks in a seemingly good way, and he was also afraid for a while, so he immediately said: "My subordinates understand." The subordinates went to prepare money and food, and dealt with it for the time being, and then took care of it when Minister Zhang came back. ”

Six days later, Zhang Lei's dust rushed back to the city of Jinan, in the governor's mansion, Zhang Lei learned about the lack of arable land in various places, and was not too surprised, but said: "Governor, subordinates think that it is not that there is not a shortage of arable land, but that most of the arable land in the six prefectures of Shandong is still concentrated in the hands of officials, gentry, and businessmen, and the arable land they handed over is only a small part. ”

"The subordinates thought that there were two ways to solve the problem of insufficient arable land at present, one was to continue to seize arable land from officials, gentry, and merchants from all over the country, and the other was to mobilize money and grain, recruit people, and start reclaiming wasteland throughout Shandong."

Liu Yan sighed and said, "This governor naturally knows the cultivated land

In whose hands, the Governor also thought about continuing to ask for farmland from the hands of those officials and gentry, but it was not practical at the moment. ”

Although the new policy has been steadily put in place, and the people's livelihood and tax revenue in Shandong have improved significantly, the external environment is getting worse and worse.

According to the Tang newspaper sent by the imperial court, Yang Guozhu, the chief military officer of Xuanfu Town, Wang Pu, the chief military officer of Datong Town, Tang Tong, the chief military officer of Miyun Town, Ma Ke, the chief military officer of Shanhaiguan Town, and Cao Bianjiao, the chief military officer of Dongxie Town, have gone south one after another, and Sun Chuanting, the governor of Shaanxi, was also appointed by Emperor Chongzhen as the governor of the three sides, commanding the military and political affairs of Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Xuanda.

However, Li Zicheng's momentum is even greater, only Kaifeng City is still struggling to support in Henan, and Gao Mingheng and Chen Yongfu are besieged in the city by the army of thieves as in history.

The two provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi have been ravaged by Li Guo, Li Dingguo and other departments, and most of them have fallen.

Immediately afterwards, Li Zicheng left a thief army to continue to besiege Kaifeng City, and he led the main army of thieves with hundreds of thousands of troops to threaten Tongguan, blocking Sun Chuanting's standard camp in the pass, and the rest of the Ming army went to support, but was constantly blocked by the thief army.

Up to now, the soldiers and horses of the Ming army are still fighting on their own, and it is extremely difficult to assemble in the direction of Tongguan, and they have not completed the assembly at all, and they will be broken by the army of thieves at any time!

Therefore, in the current situation, it is impossible for Liu Yan to move the "cake" of the official gentry and the powerful, and he must not let Shandong become turbulent, and he must always maintain the best state to cope with the current situation.

Zhang Lei saw that Liu Yan was unwilling to continue to confiscate cultivated land from the hands of the official gentry Haoqiang, and it was also clear

Bai Zhong's difficulty just sighed and said: "The subordinates understand the difficulties of the governor, so they can only reclaim the wasteland." However, it takes a few days for the subordinates to calculate the amount of human, financial and material resources needed according to the actual situation of each place grasped by the Ministry of Agriculture, and then report to the governor after accounting. ”

Liu Yan nodded and said, "Okay, just as soon as possible." ”

Three days later, Zhang Lei came to the Governor's Mansion and handed Liu Yan a copy of Shandong's reclamation strategy.

Liu Yan took the strategy and looked at Zhang Lei, only to see that Zhang Lei's face was full of beards and there were a lot of bloodshot eyes, so he said, "I haven't slept much in the past three days, have you?" ”

Zhang Lei said with a wry smile: "The subordinates basically didn't sleep. There are so many things to do, and the whole Ministry of Agriculture has basically been busy with this strategy for the past three days. The basic situation and distribution of farmland in various parts of Shandong, the distribution of reclaimable wasteland in various places, which wasteland can be reclaimed, and which wasteland is too invested and too far away from cities and towns should be sorted out one by one. ”

"Fortunately, with the implementation of the new policies in various places in recent years, officials at all levels have been pressed to go out and visit the field in their jurisdictions, and the Ministry of Agriculture has successively mastered a large amount of data on cultivated land, otherwise the governor will force his subordinates to death, and he will not be able to come up with this strategy."

"That's the benefit of data storage," Liu said. Okay, I'll look at this strategy first, you don't have to do anything today, go back to sleep. Anyone in the Ministry of Agriculture who is as tired as you will also take a day off and go home to sleep. ”

After Liu Yan "drove away" Zhang Lei, he looked at this strategy.

The Ministry of Agriculture divides the reclaimed wasteland in Shandong provinces into three classes, the first class is close to cities, villages and towns, and the land is quite good.

It can be cultivated by investing in the construction of water conservancy facilities; The second class is close to cities, villages and towns, but the land is average, or very poor, even if money and food are invested to build water conservancy facilities, there will not be much output.

The third level is that it is far away from everywhere, and the surrounding area is deserted, and even if the land is very good, it is difficult to reclaim such arable land, unless the people are relocated and new villages are built in the surrounding area. However, in this way, not only is the investment huge, but there are too many factors such as agricultural time and household registration, which is unrealistic.

Zhang Lei made statistics on the amount of cultivated land of the third class, and the first class accounted for only 20 percent, the second class accounted for 40 percent, and the third class accounted for 40 percent.

Liu Yan shook his head after reading it, according to the number of households belonging to the army that lacked land given by the Shogunate Military Department, even if all the first-class and second-class cultivated land were reclaimed, it was still a little worse.

"Then change your thinking, those military dependents can also be arranged to go to various workshops and shops, and have a stable income."

So Liu Yan wrote instructions in the strategy, ordering the Ministry of Agriculture to coordinate with the Ministry of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce, so that the Ministry of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce could arrange some military dependents as much as possible to replace 50 acres of cultivated land with the work of workshops and shops.

Liu Yan naturally knew that with the concept of the current people, it was estimated that not many military dependents would be willing to give up 50 acres of cultivated land to choose the work of workshops and shops, so he had to increase publicity.

Working in workshops and shops, you can learn a craft, you can increase your knowledge, maybe in the future, the next generation will not have to face the loess with their backs to the sky, and so on.

Liu Yan also wrote down the importance of propaganda one by one in the instructions, so that the Ministry of Agriculture could increase publicity efforts.

Early the next morning, Zhang Lei, after receiving Liu Yan's instructions, immediately came to the Ministry of Commerce

, negotiated with Song Gongming.

"Hehe, that's fine. Minister Zhang gave me a list of military dependents who needed to be arranged in various prefectures, prefectures, and counties, and I could contact local workshops and shops. ”

Zhang Lei said: "Okay, early tomorrow morning, I will send someone to send it, and I will thank Minister Song for this matter." ”

"Hehe, you and I are polite, all for the governor's worries. It's just that if you want to implement it at this time, I'm afraid it will be difficult, after all, the people now value the land the most. In troubled times, only land is the most real, and without land, there is no food, and there is no guarantee of survival, and this concept is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. ”

Zhang Lei said: "This is natural, but it is much better in our Shandong, with the governors here, who can make trouble in Shandong?" In the event of a disaster, the shogunate will also provide relief, so the possibility of escaping the famine is very low. The Ministry of Agriculture will increase publicity, and today I will mobilize manpower to go to various places to preach. ”

"Okay, our Ministry of Commerce will also mobilize some manpower to cooperate with the Ministry of Agriculture to mobilize those military families."

"Okay, that's it, I'm going to rush back."

Song Gongming said with a smile: "Minister Zhang, don't be in a hurry to go back, we haven't seen each other for a long time, today I will be the east and go to the Mandarin Duck Tower in the city for a banquet." ”

"Haha, Minister Song is so Yaxing. It's just that there are a lot of affairs in the Ministry of Agriculture right now, and I really can't leave, so next time. I still have to go back to make arrangements for the reclamation of wasteland, and in the afternoon I have to go to the Ministry of Finance to ask Minister Yue for money and food. ”

Song Gongming sighed and said, "I see that in the entire shogunate, you and Minister Tian of the military department are the most busy, and you are all tired of life. There are some things to deliver

It's good to do it for the people below, don't do everything yourself, it will be exhausting. ”

Zhang Lei smiled and hugged his fists to say goodbye.

Three days later, the Ministry of Finance allocated a large amount of money and grain, and officials of the Ministry of Agriculture began to dispatch in batches to various parts of Shandong to hire people, reclaim wasteland on a large scale, and at the same time settle the military dependents who had not yet been allocated land.

This reclamation can be said to be the largest in Shandong in the past 100 years, and the momentum is huge, even Qufu's Yansheng Gong Kong Yinzhi, Shandong Governor Yan Jizu, and Dewang Zhu Youshu all heard the news, and everyone was amazed, and they were all shocked by Liu Yan's financial resources and mobilization ability.

You must know that in the simultaneous large-scale development of Shandong, the people who need to be recruited, the manpower that needs to be organized, and the materials that need to be mobilized are massive.

This is just the reclamation of wasteland, what if it is a foreign war?

It can be said that this great expedition not only let the people of Shandong see Liu Yan's determination to serve the people wholeheartedly, but also made all forces realize that the powerful strength of Liu Yan, the governor of Shandong, is no longer something that the imperial court can control.

Soon the news spread to the capital, Hong Chengchou sighed when he heard the news, and said to the left and right: "Liu Yan has a strong army, and he is good at buying people's hearts, his ambition is not small, and his power is uncontrollable!" ”

After Emperor Chongzhen heard the news of the great development of Shandong from Wang Chengen, he sat alone in the imperial study for a whole day, silent.