Chapter 726: The Red Line of Food Shortage

Platform.

Yang Gai was holding a ruler and carefully comparing them.

The border army and the imperial army were released into Liaodong, and a lot of progress was indeed made, and the vast area centered on Shenyang began to be marked with the mark of the Ming Dynasty.

"Shenyang ......" Yang Reform compared it with a ruler. Then there is a ruler to compare the distance of the next city.

"Tieling ......" Yang Gaiai read out the name of another city. This city is a hundred miles away from Shenyang.

“…… Jianzhou ......" Yang Gai compared the ruler again and said. These marked locations are farther away from the other.

“…… These cities are now all won by my Ming Dynasty......" Yang Gai said.

There were important ministers all around, and they all listened carefully to the emperor's words.

"The further north you go, the more pressure you have!" Yang Gai had to say so. The army of the front line took Tieling, Jianzhou and these places, almost effortlessly, the trouble is still in the food and supplies, for the Ming Dynasty, the road is too far away, the army eats and drinks Lazar, the further north, the more it is consumed, the more difficult it is to guarantee.

"Returning to Your Majesty, yes, with the combat strength of our army, it is not a problem to take these places, the problem lies in the inconvenient transportation, difficult transportation, and difficult logistics to replenish ......, this is still the result of relying on the border army and the imperial alliance to support the war, if you rely on the rear supply, it will be even more difficult...... Yuan Chonghuan replied.

Yang Reform was speechless for a while, the ideal is beautiful, but the reality is always cruel, and there will always be all kinds of accidents. Originally, even if the army was increased to eat and drink, Yang Gengai gritted his teeth, and he could still insist, after all, the border army and the imperial army were to feed the war with war, and the supplies needed were less, but they could still be supported, but the problem was that not only the army went to Liaodong, but also immigrants, as well as disaster victims.

"Your Majesty, the immigrants are migrating, and then counting the return of the former Liaodong soldiers and civilians such as Dongjiang Town, Jinning and other former Liaodong soldiers and civilians, this total number of people, I am afraid that there are dozens or millions,...... Your Majesty, the shortage of this grain is quite large, and now there is still a month or two before the summer grain harvest in July, but I am afraid that the grain prepared by the household department will not last so long,...... Your Majesty, the minister is derelict in his duties, and please punish ......" Hubu Shangshu Bi Ziyan said very reproachfully. He told the problems he was currently encountering, and the household department had also made a plan and transferred grain from the south as soon as possible, but the plan could not catch up with the changes. In addition to a part of the grain in the south to be sent to Shaanxi through the Yellow River, there is also a part of the grain transported to Tianjin by sea for the use of immigrants, and it is necessary to prepare military rations for the front line; this year is another year of great disaster, and the grain output in the north has dropped sharply, and the south has to send grain to several provinces in the north, and the pressure has increased sharply.

Even if preparations were made in advance, but now, the food of the entire Ming Dynasty is a little stretched. The grain originally used in Liaodong had also been prepared for a long time, but there were too many immigrants and people returning to Liao, and there were so many mouths to eat at once, and the grain reserves, which were already somewhat stretched, immediately jumped below the red line and were in a dangerous state.

Yang reform for a headache, now he is also considered to be the Ming Dynasty up and down, there is no kind of southern hoarding of grain, tun but not sell, although the price is a little high, but it is definitely the entire Ming Dynasty of the grain mobilized, but now, there is still a shortage of food, Yang reform is not in a rut, in ancient times, population migration, army fighting, it is really a very difficult thing, just eating, it will definitely scare the vast majority of the court and officials to death, no wonder ancient China's power to expand outward is insufficient, this has not killed the enemy, I tossed myself to death first. …,

Yang Gai knew that this was a nationwide shortage of grain, which could not be solved by opening a few warehouses and getting a few big landlords, and that he could not afford the cost of food, not only would immigration be blocked, but even the military would be blocked, and even the peasant rebellion would be rekindled. Although it can also be solved by limiting the supply of food, this is by no means a good thing, and once this thing appears, it will definitely have a huge impact on society, a huge impact on itself, and many ongoing plans will definitely be affected.

"I know this matter, the Qing family does not have to blame themselves, this is not the responsibility of the Qing family, natural disasters, large-scale production reduction, plus the support of the army, plus the migration of immigrants, it is not easy to support any of them, and now the household can do this, it is extremely rare, the Qing family should not blame themselves, I should thank the Qing family for ......" Yang Reform told the truth. In such a situation of national food shortage and food need everywhere, mobilizing the whole country's grain to such an extent has reached the limit in ancient society. These three things, just take it out, it is enough for any ancient dynasty to drink a pot, Yang Reform now three things exist at the same time, this pressure, not an insider, is unimaginable, and now Yang Reform is supported by a large amount of silver, and the country's grain operation to the limit, otherwise, it must be unimaginable consequences.

“…… Thank Your Majesty for not pursuing the grace, but there is still a shortage of food, how should this be good? Bi Ziyan said.

The emperor did not answer Bi Ziyan's words.

“…… Your Majesty, speaking of which, this year has encountered such a disaster, can still migrate so many disaster victims, and can also support the army to fight, in fact, it still relies on His Majesty's ability to promote sweet potatoes, otherwise, it will not be able to support it for a long time......" Bi Ziyan saw that he had reached a dead end, and talked about his topic again, bringing the topic out, he was under great pressure, presumably the emperor's pressure was even greater, and he didn't want the emperor to be anxious about these things.

Yang Reform inadvertently glanced at Bi Ziyan, on this head, there were actually a lot of gray hairs, Yang Reform looked at it, Yang Reform didn't remember when Bi Ziyan had white hair. In the eyes of outsiders, the Ming Dynasty was full of vigor and spirit, and won successive battles, but who would have thought that the officials who were also walking on thin ice and presiding over the operation of the country would also be in a hurry to turn white.

Han Yi kept his head down and was silent, remembering what the emperor told them a few days ago, the Ming Dynasty was just constantly escaping from the devouring of hell, and there was no glory at all, let alone anything from the Han and Tang Dynasties, the Ming Dynasty was sailing against the current, and if it didn't advance, it would retreat. Now Han Yi understands this sentence better.

“…… Oh, yes! This sweet potato, but my big savior, can play a miraculous effect this year, and it is not in vain that I have put so much effort into promoting it......" Speaking of this, Yang Reform was happy for a while, afraid for a while, and proud for a while. If it weren't for Xu Guangqi preparing sweet potato seeds for himself early in the north and south, if Xu Guangqi hadn't been reminding himself, demanding himself, and even asking for the promotion of sweet potatoes to be raised to the height of the national policy, perhaps this year's sweet potato planting would never have been on such a scale. Under this kind of natural disaster, it is really unimaginable to engage in large-scale migration and supply the army to fight, even if the dispatch is effective, and the food of the whole country is concentrated to deal with the famine, I am afraid that it is also an unimaginable thing, even if there is silver, there is no place to buy food, and I can only watch these three collapse, and even turn the whole situation upside down.

"Shi Shoufu, how is the promotion of sweet potatoes this year? Now that there is a drought in the north, how is the replanting of sweet potatoes going? Since this question was mentioned, Yang Reform asked Shi Fenglai again.

"Back to Your Majesty, this matter has been supervised, now from the situation reported from all over the country, the situation of replanting sweet potatoes is good, the vast majority of the affected places, are willing to replant sweet potatoes, local governments are also doing their best, and actively supervise, this year's sweet potato planting area and output, there must be a considerable increase ......, this is also thanks to Your Majesty to the people of the world pointed out a clear way, but also thanks to Your Majesty to the people of the world to make a demonstration, if there is no Your Majesty to rely on the planting of sweet potatoes to make a profit, the world wants to promote sweet potatoes, I am afraid that it will be more difficult... Shi Fenglai immediately reported the situation on his side. This year's promotion of sweet potatoes, he is full of confidence, full of self-confidence, than last year when the promotion of sweet potatoes was very different, last year's promotion of sweet potatoes, almost an inch is difficult, local officials are mostly perfunctory, the yield of sweet potatoes is pitiful, I am really sorry for the small one million sweet potato promotion fee. But this year is different, there is an example made by the emperor last year, relying on planting sweet potatoes to make a lot of money, many places that have not suffered disasters have changed to plant sweet potatoes on their own, which can be described as gratifying. The only effect of spending so much money to promote sweet potatoes last year is that almost every state and county has sweet potato seeds, and they all know how to grow sweet potatoes, which provides experience for large-scale planting this year, which is also an additional harvest. …,

"Okay, in this matter, Shoufu still has to be careful, and he has to constantly urge all places to replant sweet potatoes, inside and outside the border wall, in those places in Liaodong, the Qing family should also be more attentive, and those that are under the management of the local government should also be urged more, and those that are not under the local government will be ordered by the ......," Yang Gai said. Yang reform is the side wall, Liaodong planting sweet potatoes, now so many people in Liaodong eat horses to chew, to a large extent, thanks to Yang Reform last year planted sweet potatoes, Liaodong began to plant sweet potatoes and other crops on a large scale last year, this year's scale is larger, for alleviating food shortage, has played a great role.

Although the grain situation is tense this year, and the grain reserves have reached below the red line, this year is approaching the harvest season, as long as it can be supported for another month or two, in July and August, it will be possible to receive the grain harvested this summer, and it will last for another month or two, and in September and October, the sweet potatoes planted throughout the country will be ripe, and they are not afraid of not being eaten.

With grain in his hands and no panic in his heart, Yang Reform has always regarded the output of grain as the top priority of his concern, and the holding of grain has always been his top priority. Now that grain reserves have slipped to the red line, although Yang Reform has some headaches, he will not panic.

"Command!" Shi Fenglai replied that this year's promotion of sweet potatoes is finally brilliant, but it is a bit of a reversal, and people are also extraordinarily spiritual.

"That's right, Master Xu said, Da Ryukyu, the first phase of rice this year has been harvested, the yield is considerable, I have asked Master Xu to transport the grain to the north as much as possible, first solve the pain of lack of grain in the north, think Master Xu's food in the Great Ryukyu arrive, the pain of the lack of food, will definitely alleviate the ......, I estimate that in about half a month, the grain will arrive in Tianjin......" Yang Reform said again, the importance of food, Yang Reform has never forgotten. For the granary that he spent a lot of money to build, Yang Reform is also very proud and has a sense of achievement.

"Great Ryukyus? ……”

"Already harvested? ……”

"Already shipped? ……”

"Coming to Tianjin? ……”

In the platform, there was a burst of surprise and surprise. Although everyone doesn't grow their own rice, they have eaten rice for so many years, and they know when the summer tax will be collected, and now it is only late May, so it will be harvested so soon? And it's hard to believe that the grain is about to be transported from Daliuqiu to Tianjin.

“…… Your Majesty, it's only May, won't this be ......" Shi Fenglai asked unexpectedly, May and June have always been the days of green and yellow, but now the first batch of new rice is about to go on the market......

"Why, I still can't deceive people? Can I tell a lie about such a big thing? The Great Ryukyu can produce grain two or three times a year, and the earliest rice is planted at the beginning of the year, harvested in mid-April, and put into the warehouse in May. Yang Gai said with a smile, for his own achievements, quite proud, in this green and yellow time suddenly shipped new grain, for the stability of food prices and people's hearts has an extremely important role, its shock can be imagined.

Immigrating to Taiwan with a huge amount of money and developing Taiwan, Yang reform's original plan, in addition to relocating the victims, also had other considerations, for example, when there was a disaster in the future and there was an extreme shortage of food, it was used to fight against the grain merchants in the south who hoarded grain. Yang's initial plan for reform was to suddenly produce a batch of new grain at a time when the mainland was at its most scarce, as a means of forcing grain merchants to make concessions.

This is Yang reform's 10,000 steps back, forced to do the last resort, of course, now the south has been smoothed out by itself, but did not take a long-sighted dare to call with himself, the general business landlord has grain in his hands, raise the price to sell, Yang reform will not say anything, after all, the food is tight, the price is also reasonable, if it is said that hoarding is not sold, want to create a grain shortage and wait for the price to sell, then Yang reform is not polite. Yang reformed the means to deal with these grain merchants. Of course, there is no need for it now, the grain merchants and landlords in the south are very discerning, and there is no one who does not have long eyes. …,

In addition to the Great Ryukyu, the first immigrants to Dongting Lake also had this consideration, and Yang Reform needed to put grain bags on his body to have a sense of security.

However, Dongting Lake also has a lot of weaknesses, that is, the grain is transported to the north, the road is too far, and if you hold it in your hand, it can only be said that it is better than nothing.

Although the Great Ryukyu was also far away, it was convenient for sea ships, and the transportation volume was huge, which could offset the factor of long distances, and coupled with Yang Reform's intention to promote maritime expansion, the immigrants Dongting Lake became the Great Ryukyu.

This is the case in Dongting Lake and Daliuqiu, in fact, the same is true in Liaodong, in any society and era, eating is always the most important problem, there is no guarantee to eat, everything is fake, Liaodong is actually one of the grain bags of Yang reform.

Several people looked at the emperor in surprise and surprise, but they didn't expect that the emperor would get grain from Da Liuqiu quietly, or at this time when there was no catch, this was really unexpected.

Although a few people have also heard of the three crops in the Great Ryukyus, they have not really felt what the three crops in a year represent.

"Hehehe, you don't believe me? Since you don't believe it, then wait a little longer, at most half a month, the grain should arrive in the capital, and at that time, you don't need to explain, you will naturally believe it......" Yang Gai said with a smile, although the effect of this back hand is not as big as expected, but it is not small. The grain of the Great Ryukyu has a lot of supplements to the food system of the entire Ming Dynasty, with this food source, the Ming Dynasty's dependence on Jiangnan grain has been reduced again, and the reduction of the imperial court's dependence on Jiangnan has also played an extremely important role in balancing the imperial situation.

Several people looked at each other, surprised.

"Your Majesty, it's not that the ministers don't believe it, it's just that this is really unexpected......," Han Yi said.

"Your Majesty has been hiding from the ministers for a long time, since there is food coming, why didn't you inform the ministers earlier? Let the minister turn his hair white in vain, Your Majesty, I just don't know how much grain there is, how much grain can be transported......" Bi Ziyan was overjoyed, and hurriedly asked, at this moment, the burden that had been pressing on his body seemed to have been lightened a lot. I was even more emotional, or the emperor had a way to get food in such a green and yellow day.

"Hehehe, grain, this batch, a large part of it is this year's new grain, the first batch is about 300,000 stones, as the grain in the Great Ryukyu continues to mature, it will continue to transport the grain over, as for how many, you can calculate it yourself, the Great Ryukyu is a million immigrants ......" Yang Gai said with a smile.

A few people were shocked again, and then they came back to their senses, that Ryukyu claimed to have immigrated millions last year, and they are still immigrating this year, this number must be more than one million, how many fields do you have to plant? These fields are at least two crops a year, and many of them are three crops a year, so how much grain must be harvested this year? Doesn't that mean that with this going on, it will not be a problem to support Jingshi's millions of stone grain every year? Or even more?

Bi Ziyan couldn't help but sigh in his heart, although it cost a huge amount of money to immigrate so many people in the past, but I have to say that in the long run, it is definitely quite cost-effective, and now isn't it just sending grain to Beijing? I also thought that almost all of the immigrants over there were farming, and there was a lot of food, and it was impossible for them to eat it all, and they didn't have to pay rent to the landlord, and in addition to paying taxes, there must be a large part left, and in exchange for other living goods, they must be sold, to whom? The emperor gave those victims a way to live, and those victims treated the emperor as a bodhisattva, who else could they sell to if they didn't sell to the emperor? Outsiders don't want to get half a penny, Bi Ziyan suddenly said in his heart: There is food in his hands, and he is not panicked. Now the emperor is at ease in dealing with the court situation, as if he does whatever he wants, but in fact it is by no means accidental.

“…… Your Majesty has been hiding from your ministers,...... Alas, that Xu Zixian also concealed that I was so bitter......" Shi Feng said such a sentence, which was regarded as complaining, he thought that he was promoting sweet potatoes, and this year's ability to turn the tide and be out of the limelight, but as soon as a shadow appeared, there was such a thing, the role of his promotion of sweet potatoes was greatly reduced, and it was not he who turned the tide, he was at most a supporting role, Shi Feng's heart was cold.

"Hehehe, I didn't mean to hide it from you, but the food didn't arrive, and I said this kind of big thing recklessly, I'm afraid it will make you laugh, originally, I planned to wait for the food to arrive, but I was forced to say the news, Chong Chongxi, give you a reassurance......" Yang Reform said with a smile, but he didn't think so in his heart, Yang Reform originally planned to use this thing as a killer weapon, the end of the Ming Dynasty must be a natural disaster, food must be in short supply, Yang Reform knows that he must worry about food, It is very likely that you will have to fight with the merchants in the south of the Yangtze River, this killer thing Yang Reform is too late, how can it be okay to talk about it, so it is never mentioned, and many people mistakenly think that the Great Ryukyu is still a wild land, and it is not easy to feed themselves in large-scale immigration, where there is food to send out? Although this killer weapon should not be used to deal with the grain merchants and landlords in the south of the Yangtze River, it still has a miraculous effect, and it has a miraculous effect in inspiring people and relieving grain pressure.