The nineteenth year of Xuanping is not destined to be an unusual year, not only for the empire, but even for the whole world!

This year, the Chaobao Department under the Ministry of Rites of the Tang Dynasty has become the busiest department, and every day is worried about how to choose from the many big news and put it on the front pages, after all, what news should be on what page, that is a major issue, representing the direct statement of the official, can not be sent randomly.

In the nineteen years of Xuanping, many major events broke out at the same time, the introduction of which is of course the large-scale application of trains and ships, etc., but these are just an introduction, if you really want to come to the end, the changes that occurred in the nineteenth year of Xuanping are an outbreak after the empire has lasted for nearly 20 years of political, military, economic, educational, scientific and technological reform and development!

This great change is the inevitable result of historical development!

When the Tang Dynasty rises and many reforms are carried out, this kind of thing will inevitably occur!

Now, it's just for people to see!

In the past few years, people may also be able to feel the changes in the land of China, but the overall feeling is not very obvious, for the vast majority of the people of the empire, in fact, the Chinese under the rule of the Tang Dynasty is not much different from the traditional feudal dynasty.

The vast majority of the people are farmers, they still farm, they pay taxes, they serve, and with the exception of a very few, most of them still do not leave the villages where they have lived all their lives to see how the world has changed.

Those who can really feel the great changes in the land of China are still living in cities, especially those in developed industrial and commercial areas, such as Shanghai.

People who live and work in Shanghai should be the most able to feel the great changes in this society, countless wastelands have become factories, people from all over the country have flocked to Shanghai, and Shanghai has become a strange modern city.

In the nineteenth year of Xuanping, even ordinary people can feel that earth-shaking changes are taking place in the land they live in.

Their feelings may not be too comprehensive, but they will feel to some extent, for example, the large-scale construction of water conservancy has entered this year, and the construction of water conservancy facilities in many places has been completed.

These water conservancy facilities are not all super projects such as the Hongze Lake flood control embankment, the Yangtze River and the Yellow River embankment, but in fact, they are more small water conservancy facilities in the countryside, mainly for irrigating farmland.

After several years of construction, most localities have completed the tasks assigned by the above, and have completed the basic water conservancy facilities in their jurisdictions, and perhaps some localities are just mere formalities, and some localities have not done a good job, but on the whole, this large-scale water conservancy construction that has affected the whole country has achieved tremendous results.

One of the most obvious proofs is that in the nineteenth year of Xuanping, in fact, there was no good weather in the whole country, and the good rainfall in many places was insufficient, while in some places there was heavy rainfall, the empire was so big, there will always be some places where the weather is more or less abnormal.

However, these climatic changes did not affect the empire's grain production too much.

According to the report of the Ministry of Agriculture, in the 19 years of Xuanping, there were no major disasters such as grain production in any place in the whole country, and at the same time, because of the popularization of water conservancy facilities, many inferior fields became medium fields, and medium fields became superior fields, which also led to a further increase in grain production.

In the 19th year of Xuanping, the collection of 'agricultural tax' according to the statistics of the Ministry of Taxation will increase by about 5 percent compared with last year.

Don't underestimate the five percent, you must know that the agricultural tax of the empire is basically fixed and collected, since there is an increase, it means that more arable land has been developed, or ordinary inferior fields have become superior fields.

Because the agricultural tax is not levied according to the proportion of grain production, but according to the number of acres, this cannot truly reflect the change in grain output.

However, the news fed back by the Datang Grain Corporation was enough to reflect the changes in the empire's grain production.

During the autumn harvest in the 19th year of Xuanping, the branches of many provinces under the Datang Grain Corporation urgently appealed to the head office for help.

Why ask for help?

Because the branches in various places found that the funds for the purchase of grain were insufficient!

Datang Grain Corporation, as the largest grain merchant in the Tang Empire, has always firmly implemented the policy of stabilizing grain prices, and used to balance grain prices through measures such as collecting and releasing grain.

This year's grain output has increased a little, even if some grain branches have realized that there has been a bumper harvest in grain production and have prepared huge funds in advance, but they still did not expect that grain production will increase to this point.

Especially in the two provinces, the data fed back by the grain company shows that the grain output in the Huguang area is 20 percent more than last year, and the local population is obviously unable to digest so much grain, and the local farmers will take out the surplus grain and sell it!

Ordinary grain merchants are not stupid, they have long known that there has been a bumper harvest of grain, and they are still willing to collect grain according to last year's price, and they are not even willing to collect grain according to the lowest price of the grain price range set by the local grain company!

According to their predictions, if this is collected, how much will be lost!

Ordinary grain merchants did not dare to accept it, and those farmers naturally swarmed to carry the grain to the door of the grain company, and in order to stabilize the price of grain, so that the price of grain does not rise in disaster years, and the price of grain does not fall in good years, Datang Grain Corporation has always been firmly in accordance with the price range set by itself to collect or release grain, and there is no upper limit.

But there was a lot of grain harvested, and there was a big problem with this capital reserve, and finally I had to ask the head office for help!

Of course, Datang Grain Corporation has a big business, and it has countless grains and cash hoarded in its hands at any time, and Datang Grain Corporation is actually very profitable.

When they buy grain from the grain-producing areas, they all collect it according to a relatively low price range, and when it is transported to the grain consumption areas, they are often sold according to the higher range of grain prices.

Over the years, Datang Grain Corporation has earned a lot of money every year, and in addition to paying taxes in the process of operation, it has also paid a lot of additional profits.

Therefore, even if there is a bumper harvest year in the Huguang area, which has caused great pressure on the local branch, it is nothing in the entire Datang Grain Corporation.

Some of the purchased grain will be shipped to other places for sale, especially in areas where there is a shortage of grain, and some will be refined and made into various products, such as winemaking, which is one of the main businesses of Datang Grain Corporation.

Another part will be stored in the grain reserve warehouse as part of the Empire's strategic grain reserve.

There are a lot of grain reserve warehouses established by Datang Grain Corporation all over the country, just a strategic reserve warehouse in Jinling City, and the grain stored in them is enough to feed hundreds of thousands of people in the entire Jinling City area for ten years!

The increase in grain production is enough to show that the water conservancy construction that the empire has lasted for several years has achieved outstanding results!

When Li Xuan saw the relevant reports from the Datang Grain Corporation and other departments, he knew that although he was still far from the great strategic goal of feeding the people of the whole country, he had already seen a glimmer of light.

At least, in the past few years, there have been no large-scale famine events in the empire!

Of course, there was no large-scale famine, and the people in many places still did not have enough to eat.

Li Xuan is very clear about this, but he is also very helpless, in the era of no chemical fertilizer and no hybrid rice, it is not easy to feed more than 160 million people, as for wanting to make these 160 million people eat every day, to be honest, this is a bit difficult.

At least with the current technical capabilities of the Tang Empire, it is unattainable.

After all, there is a world of difference between preventing the people of the whole country from starving to death on a large scale and letting the people of the whole country eat enough every day.

Moreover, since the unification of the empire, because there is no impact of war, the rate of population growth has gradually accelerated, in accordance with ancient traditions, and this growth rate is even faster than the development rate of arable land.

According to the census that has just been completed by the Ministry of Households, the population of the empire has reached more than 160 million.

The household department began to conduct a census in the 15th year of Xuanping, but due to many troubles such as backward transportation and communications, it was barely completed until the 19th year of Xuanping, and a lot of its data was actually not completely prepared, and a considerable part of it was obtained by speculation and mathematical calculations, especially for the population statistics in remote mountainous areas, which was actually very difficult.

Almost all of these 600 million people live in the native areas, and the total number of people living in a number of overseas territories is less than 500,000, and the total number of people living in the colonies is only more than 100,000.

Among them, the overseas consulate with the largest number of immigrants is the Ryukyu Prefecture, with a registered population of about 200,000, but of these 200,000 people, more than 100,000 are naturalized Fuso women, and the real permanent population is actually not so much, at most only tens of thousands.

Fuso women were naturalized in the empire through formal channels, usually in Osumi Prefecture, Ryukyu Prefecture, and these Fuso women were only registered here, but lived in the mainland.

And many people have actually moved their household registration to the place where their husbands in China are located or other parts of the country, and these more than 100,000 are just Fuso women whose household registration is still in Osumi County.

Over the years, the total number of Fusang women who have been naturalized from various channels in the Tang Empire should have exceeded 300,000.

These 300,000 people, almost all of whom are young women of childbearing age, make many single dogs in China shout Long live the empire!