After Chongzhen's mediation, Zhang Xie and the teachers and students of the Naval Academy finally reluctantly agreed with Edmond Dantès's explanation of the method and intensity of his training for sea voyages.

However, because of the loss of personnel caused by this voyage, Zhang Xie also put forward a request to compile naval training regulations.

In Zhang Xie's view, although there is some truth in what Edmond Dantès said, it is impossible for the Naval Academy to take valuable cadets and carry out cruel elimination in this way.

The variety of knowledge that each naval cadet had to learn before embarking on the ship far exceeded the knowledge reserve of the cabin boys in Europe in this era. What they need is to familiarize themselves with the unexpected conditions at sea in a step-by-step manner, rather than risking their own lives.

In view of the serious blow to the morale of the navy's noncommissioned officers on this voyage, after the "Zheng He" went ashore, more than 10 people applied to withdraw from school and refused to continue their training on the "Zheng He."

Zhu Youzhen had no choice but to make a compromise and appoint Zhang Xie to set up a naval research office to revise and improve the naval regulations previously drawn up by the General Staff Headquarters.

The General Staff, which is mainly composed of army and cavalry officers, has little understanding of naval warfare, so most of the naval regulations they have compiled are copied from the army regulations, which is another dissatisfaction of Zhang Xie and other teachers and students of the naval academy.

In addition, Chongzhen ordered people to arrange a memorial service for the naval non-commissioned officers who died on the northward voyage, and gave generous compensation to the deceased and the disabled, which calmed down the casualties of the "Zheng He" on the first voyage.

By mid-July, the summer harvest in Shaanxi and Shanxi had basically been transmitted back to the capital. The potatoes, sweet potatoes and corn planted in Shaanxi last year are still stronger than the traditional millet and wheat despite the severe drought in Shaanxi.

Therefore, before the first month of this year, the imperial court and the Academy of Agricultural Sciences organized a large number of potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn seeds from Beizhili to be transported to Shaanxi and Shanxi to organize the victims to save themselves.

According to the experiment of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the survey of old farmers in the potato planting areas of Fujian, potatoes are cold-loving, drought-tolerant and barren, and are suitable for planting in the hilly and mountainous areas of northern Shaanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia.

However, due to overdevelopment and years of water conservancy, the Guanzhong Plain has a high degree of salinization and compaction, so it is not suitable for growing potatoes.

Although these three crops were planted in the northern Zhili and Shandong regions last year, the severe drought near Gyeonggi also led to a good harvest of potatoes grown in the mountainous areas.

Therefore, in addition to leaving a part of the seeds, the area of potatoes that can be sown to northern Shaanxi is just over 100,000 mu.

2. Plant in March and harvest in June. Of the 100,000 acres of potatoes, more than 200 catties were harvested and more than 400 catties were harvested. It is more than 50% of the harvest of millet planted on weekdays, and it is more than double that of wheat.

100,000 acres of land, harvested nearly 30 million catties of potatoes, nearly 200,000 stone grains, which greatly alleviated the problem of military and civilian rations in Yulin.

Although there has been a severe drought for two consecutive years, and people have been affected all over Shaanxi, Yulin can still earn some grain from the border trade because it is located on the border wall. In addition, this place is a border town, most of the local military households, and the military rations accumulated by the imperial court here have also flowed into the local market to some extent, with these favorable conditions, it can be regarded as allowing the people of Yulin to survive the drought for two consecutive years.

When the imperial court sent new crops to northern Shaanxi with the intention of helping the victims of last year's drought, the Yulin area was the fastest to resume production because there were fewer people fleeing the famine.

Half of the nearly 100,000 mu of potatoes are in the Yulin area, and these harvests have immediately solved the food ration problem of the local people in Yulin, and some grain can also be allocated to the surrounding areas.

However, after the people of Shaanxi Province were relieved by the imperial court, relocated to Shanxi, Henan, Sichuan and other places for food, and recruited displaced people to go to Ningxia and Hetao for reclamation, the local population decreased by almost two-tenths or three-tenths compared with previous years, which also greatly reduced the difficulty of relief for the local government.

In July of the first year of Chongzhen, order in various parts of Shaanxi finally began to slowly restore. In the summer and autumn of last year, after leaving the county seat, the situation of ghosts in the wild has also improved.

With the help of the labor of displaced people, the Guanzhong Plain repaired eight major channels in one fell swoop, so that there was no water shortage in the main farming areas in the Guanzhong area this year.

Last year, Yang He vigorously advocated pacification, which not only stabilized the situation in Shaanxi, but most importantly, maintained social stability in the Guanzhong Plain.

It is precisely because of this social stability that the area of winter wheat sown in the Guanzhong Plain last winter was even higher than in previous years.

The new overseas crops promoted by the imperial court in Shaanxi have indeed brought hope to the people in northern Shaanxi, and also made the people of Shaanxi accept several drought-resistant and high-yield crops.

However, this year's winter wheat in the Guanzhong Plain has been harvested, which has really saved the deterioration of the situation in Shaanxi.

The Guanzhong Plain is also known as the Weihe Plain, known as the "Eight Hundred Miles of Qinchuan". Since ancient times, it has been one of the richest agricultural regions in China. Since the beginning of the Qin Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty, it was only because of overdevelopment that the climate became increasingly arid, and the economic center of gravity of the world moved from Guanzhong to the south.

Although the bumper wheat harvest in the Guanzhong Plain in the second year of Chongzhen temporarily alleviated the food ration problem of the people in Shaanxi, the local gentry and officials in Shaanxi were still worried.

After all, the people of the Guanzhong Plain have settled down, but there are still 2 or 3 million people in the Gansu, Ningxia, and northern Shaanxi plateaus, who still need relief from the imperial court, which is obviously a considerable burden.

Without 2 or 3 years of smooth wind and rain, Shaanxi will not be able to slow down. As the most densely populated area in Shaanxi, the Guanzhong Plain has reached the upper limit of land.

Last year, so many victims poured into the Guanzhong Plain to wait for relief from the imperial court and local governments, and now it is also a difficult problem to send them back to their hometowns in one go.

After all, when these victims fled their hometowns, most of them had already pawned off their fields and properties in their hometowns, and even if they were sent back, they would not be able to make a living.

As a result, these landless victims, who have lost hundreds of thousands of land, have now become a major hidden danger in the Guanzhong region.

While asking the court for help, the gentry in Shaanxi racked their brains to arrange for these landless victims to work, so that they could support themselves instead of becoming idle refugees.

Last year, the gentry in Guanzhong proposed to sort out the water conservancy channels and build the Jinghui Canal, which not only consumed a lot of labor, but also laid the foundation for this year's summer harvest in the Guanzhong Plain. Therefore, some gentry proposed to Yang He to continue to expand the scale of the construction of the Jinghui Canal, and build several more canals to expand the water conservancy and irrigation area of the Guanzhong Plain.

Although the Shaanxi gentry were still worried, after the situation of the summer harvest in Shaanxi was sent to the capital this year, the cabinet ministers finally breathed a sigh of relief.

In the view of Huang Liji and Guo Yunhou, no matter what happens to this year's autumn harvest, at least the imperial court finally has time to move Shaanxi's grain problem to the autumn to solve it.

And the bumper harvest in the Guanzhong Plain also made the Shaanxi Wandering Army that was appeased last year finally able to settle down, and there will be no recurrence for the time being.

Compared with the easing of the situation in Shaanxi, the situation in Shanxi has become somewhat grim. Shanxi was not a large grain-producing province in the first place, and after a large number of victims were introduced to the southern part of Shanxi last year, it immediately caused a shortage of local food.

However, Hong Chengchou, who was transferred from Shaanxi to Shanxi Governor, is indeed a capable talent. The 36-year-old feudal official soon discovered that Shanxi's food shortage was not really short.

In addition to buying grain locally, Shanxi grain merchants also controlled large areas of grain production in Henan and other places. The objects of their grain sales are, first, the coal and iron mining in the Changye area of Shanxi, in exchange for iron tools in this area.

In addition, they bypassed the border and sold grain and iron tools to the Mongols outside the border in exchange for horses, cattle and sheep, and various leathers.

In the face of the imperial court's policy of unified purchase and marketing of grain last year, the grain merchants in Shanxi did not adopt the same hard-top method as the gentry in Henan, but chose soft grinding.

These Shanxi grain merchants are basically big grain merchants who have been detached from land production, and the grain they sell will not produce more than half of the grain on their own land. On the way out of his hometown and north, a large number of transshipment granaries were established.

Therefore, when the imperial court promulgated the policy of unified purchase and marketing of grain, these grain merchants immediately stored the grain they had purchased from other places, and only sold some grain in small quantities.

These grain merchants have a habit of hoarding, so they don't care about the one-year lock-up period. On the contrary, I feel that I can take the opportunity to raise the price of food on the black market.

Although some of the granaries in Datong and Taiyuan were controlled by the government, causing them to lose part of their grain reserves, the government has never been able to control the small granaries outside these cities.

After realizing this situation, Hong Chengchou immediately sent a letter to the imperial court, suggesting that the imperial court should relax the control of this year's new grain, which can be regarded as the fulfillment of last year's promise.

However, please ask the imperial court to order that the price of old grain more than two years old in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Beizhili, and Shandong will continue to be controlled.

In addition, he also suggested that the qualifications of Shanxi grain merchants should be examined and a grain dealer license should be issued. The amount of grain sold each year is used as a quota to limit the amount of grain that these grain merchants can purchase.

If it is found that the amount of grain purchased by the grain merchant is too different from the amount sold, the court should punish him or confiscate his license. If a person sells grain without a license, he shall be punished with a penalty of violating the law, and in addition to confiscating the grain he has purchased, he shall also be punished heavily.

At the same time, Hong Chengchou also cut down several hoarders of grain merchants without mercy and confiscated their hoarded grain. Under the deterrence of such force, grain prices in Shanxi finally stabilized slightly.

In Hong Chengchou's letter, the part about the grain merchant license is not far from the grain merchant system that the imperial court is preparing to issue. However, last year, because of the rebellion of the Henan gentry against the grain policy, the system was suspended.

Now there is a letter from the governor of Shanxi, and after Chongzhen discussed with the cabinet, he issued the grain management system that had been formulated after slight modifications.