Regarding Huang Liji's question, Zhu Youzhen was silent for a while before saying: "Mr. Huang is right, when the imperial court announces this policy, the wealthy families of Gyeonggi will be the biggest beneficiaries.

However, it will take at least three years to reclaim a piece of wasteland into a mature cotton field, during which the input will not be less than 2 yuan per mu, and there will be no output in the first two years.

If we want ordinary people to reclaim wasteland, they will not have enough financial resources and too many people, which will not be good for the management of the imperial court.

After all, the wasteland we want to develop now is not tens of thousands of acres, or even millions of acres, but tens of millions of acres. If you want to develop it in the fastest time, you have to let the wealthy families intervene, because only they have enough financial resources to develop the entire wasteland.

Now that there are disasters in the north almost every year, if we can't open up a grain base near Gyeonggi, if there is a large-scale disaster in the south or if there is a problem with the transportation of water, won't the imperial court be helpless and sit back and wait for death in the future?

Therefore, I feel that even if we let these wealthy families intervene in the matter of land reclamation, as long as we can complete the Haihe River control project as soon as possible and let the imperial court increase taxes, this is the best choice we can do at present. ”

What Huang Liji and Guo Yunhou opposed was not the control of the Haihe River, but the formulation of such a huge plan for river control, which exceeded the investment of Taicang Bank for 20 consecutive years, which was completely beyond their imagination.

The ministers present, even Xu Guangqi, who supported Chongzhen the most, believed in the most simple way of fund management in the agricultural era, that is, how much income was arranged. Because of the lack of income, the things that cannot be invested in the work are temporarily postponed, and the sky will not fall anyway.

And since Chongzhen ascended the throne, the young emperor has been spending money constantly, not caring about what will happen to the inner treasury when the money is spent. It's just that the money Chongzhen spent was not used for his own pleasure, but mainly spent on the national economy and people's livelihood, so even the most critical officials who spent money on the emperor could not directly attack Chongzhen for spending money at this point.

They can only write a letter to advise Chongzhen in a roundabout way, governing the country is like running a family, and living a diligent and thrifty life is the right way. The things of the world cannot be done, although Your Majesty is full of vitality and wants to do things that are beneficial to the Ming Dynasty, but if the court acts properly, it will make the people's power wither, which will cause counterproductive results.

What Huang Liji and Guo Yunhou have done in the past seven years is less than the workload of half a year this year. At the beginning, they were still full of joy that Chongzhen was able to forge ahead after he ascended the throne, carry out drastic reforms, and actively do practical things, which was completely different from the apocalypse.

However, when Chongzhen ascended the throne for almost a year, those officials in the court who hoped that after the new emperor ascended the throne, they would be able to actively participate in the government and change the old appearance of the wasted government of Wanli and Tianqi, but now they feel that Chongzhen is too active.

In terms of road construction and water control alone, the capital investment in the past year has at least exceeded the investment during the Apocalypse Dynasty. What made these officials even more panicked was that until now they had not figured out how the imperial court had made those merchants come up with money to do these things.

What worries them even more is whether the money will really be repaid by then. People basically have two attitudes towards things that they can't figure out. One is to blindly follow the propagandist until he meets his head and breaks the bloodstream; The other is suspicious and eventually stagnant.

Most of the officials in the court were clearly the latter, and they had become accustomed to a routine life and step-by-step promotions. What they hope most is that everything is under their own control, and this kind of life without accidents is their ideal peaceful life.

Even Huang Liji and Guo Yunhou, who are pragmatic officials who hope that the court talks empty and the atmosphere of waste politics will be improved, and they want to do something practically. The biggest hope is just to improve some administrative efficiency, curb the fierce party strife in the court, and the orders of the Ming center can be implemented locally.

They never imagined that every day they would face countless unforeseen challenges and an increasingly specialized administrative bureaucracy.

If in the past, the imperial court wanted to handle such a huge project as the control of the Haihe River, then from discussing the pros and cons to selecting the officials to preside over the project, to starting the project, every link was calculated in months. Now it's measured in days.

The former is inefficient, but almost all aspects have been taken into account before doing things, so once the project is implemented, there will be no sudden problems.

But the latter is different, under the substantial improvement of efficiency, there will always be countless emergencies in front of the officials, and they need to make decisions in a timely manner.

Compared with the stable days of the past, the current officials feel that every day is like walking on a single-plank bridge in mid-air, and only by maintaining a sense of tension can they get through each day safely.

Therefore, whether it is the middle and high-level officials of the six ministries, or cabinet ministers like Huang Liji and Guo Yunhou, they all hope from the bottom of their hearts that Chongzhen can stop his steps and let everyone take a breath first.

For example, the current plan to eradicate the Haihe River, which has been revised and completely changed beyond recognition, has subconsciously made most cabinet ministers want to delay it for a while.

But now even the most troublesome problem of capital investment could not discourage the emperor's determination, coupled with the favorable information released by Chongzhen for the wealthy families, in the end, these cabinet ministers gave in first.

The so-called wealthy family, in addition to the continuous emergence of reading seeds in the family, the biggest root lies in the possession of land.

Before and at the beginning of the year, Chongzhen's liquidation of the landlords of the royal estates and large estates near Gyeonggi forced the powerful gentry near Gyeonggi to withdraw a large amount of land.

These powerful gentry did not lose interest in the land of, they were only afraid of Chongzhen's ruthless methods in clearing the landlords.

Now, if the imperial court first announces the plan for the management of the Haihe River and then issues a new policy for the reclamation of wasteland, even if it is based on the contract for the purchase of cotton at a fixed price for seven consecutive years, these powerful gentry in the Gyeonggi area will rush to respond to the call of the imperial court.

Because this is equivalent to the cost of reclaiming wasteland, it is still paid by the imperial court, but the landlord who obtained the land first comes up with the money to let the imperial court control the water. This is obviously a cost-effective business, and with enough money, you can get a piece of land for nothing in ten years.

There are several ministers present who have a relationship with the Gyeonggi nobles and gentry. As long as the wind is released, you will naturally be able to get the fattest harvest. In that case, why should we object any further?

Just a moment later, the cabinet, under the leadership of Huang Liji, decided to follow the method proposed by Chongzhen for a trial for a year, and then fully implement the Haihe River control plan.

After dealing with the sudden proposal put forward by Chongzhen, Huang Liji continued and continued to read the normal matters in the process of the cabinet meeting.

“… At present, although there is one person in the cabinet who is in charge of agricultural affairs, the central government does not have a complete department to undertake the agricultural management affairs of the cabinet and the localities.

The responsibilities of agricultural production were shared by the Superintendent of the Shanglin Garden, the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and the Guanglu Temple. And the household department has divided the power of grain storage and management.

After the outbreak of disasters in various places this year, the imperial court was unable to provide timely guidance to the local government on production and self-help, and to allocate relief materials for disaster relief as soon as possible, which can be said to be a small part of the reason that the imperial court lacked a unified department to manage agriculture.

Therefore, according to the proposal of some officials, the minister thought that a unified department should be set up to manage the agriculture of the world, and that it would be better to make overall arrangements for the production of grain in various localities..."

Huang Liji's proposal to establish an agricultural department based on the Shanglin Yuanjian and the Grain Bureau under the jurisdiction of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the Ministry of Household Affairs immediately aroused Guo Yunhou's opposition.

Although after a whip law, the monetary system of the Ming Dynasty has essentially become a composite monetary system of silver and copper. However, after Chongzhen ascended the throne, the household department once again restored the tax system in kind to the northern provinces, and Chongzhen, through the Four Seas Commercial Bank, made the newly issued paper money begin to anchor the way of grain, cotton cloth and edible oil.

As a result, in the areas of Beizhili, Liaoxi, and Dengzhou in Shandong, grain has once again become the standard for measuring the value of money. In the disaster-stricken northern Shaanxi region, grain has been monetized.

In this environment, the newly established Grain Bureau of the Ministry of Household Affairs has obviously become a bank similar to physical currency. Guo Yunhou and the officials of the household department have put so much energy into it, and now the grain bureau has only appeared in a prototype, and Huang Liji seems to have taken it from the hands of the household department, which obviously aroused his strong opposition.

However, Huang Liji was not afraid of Guo Yunhou's opposition, because behind the establishment of the Ministry of Agriculture, there was also the meaning of Chongzhen.

The establishment of an agricultural department is something Chongzhen has wanted to do since he ascended the throne, but he has never found a suitable opportunity.

When the Ministry of Household Affairs set up a grain bureau, Huang Liji was shocked to find that most of the affairs of the local county government were related to agriculture.

Originally, the household department could only collect land taxes and allocate taxes and grain according to the old practice, so it can be said that there was basically no room for interference in the local government.

However, after the establishment of the Food Bureau, the Ministry of Household Affairs seemed to find a gap in interfering in local affairs. From protecting the area under grain cultivation, to selecting and breeding improved seeds, and popularizing the index of multiple cropping in fields, almost all local officials have to revolve around the orders of the household department.

This is obviously not in line with the interests of Huang Liji, the head of the cabinet, and other departments. Therefore, under the advocacy of the Daming Times, some officials wrote to the cabinet, believing that it was necessary to set up a unified department to manage agricultural affairs, so as to improve the efficiency of grain production in the Ming Dynasty and resist the possibility of large-scale local famines.

Under Chongzhen's favoritism, Huang Liji almost achieved his goal. In the end, however, Guo retained a little power, namely that the household ministry and the newly established agricultural department had the power to jointly manage the grain bureau.