Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 1027

Zhu Yujian's reaction could not be more obvious than the differences in concepts between East and West in the seventeenth century.

Europe has been sparsely populated since ancient times. Due to the extremely poor sanitation level and frequent wars, the population growth rate has not been able to increase... They have had several waves of population growth peaks, but everyone knows that there is something It's called the plague, and it broke out several times. The most severe one killed nearly half of Europe's population in one go, and the momentum of European population growth came to an abrupt end.Moreover, the level of agriculture in Europe has been steadily regressing since the collapse of the Roman Empire. Due to continuous wars, a large number of advanced technologies have been lost, and a large number of water conservancy projects and irrigation systems have been destroyed. Due to the continuous decline in population, large agricultural areas have been abandoned. became a forest.The ignorance caused by religion has delayed the improvement of agricultural technology. Since the pre-Qin period, Chinese farmers have known that manure should be used in farming, but Europe does not allow this. In their belief, manure is the most dirty thing. It will pollute the food and pollute the land. Whoever dares to apply manure to the crops will wait for the fire-type column to cook slowly!This has led to a very funny situation: the city is producing a huge amount of human and animal manure every day, which is piled higher than the city wall, while the fields outside the city are extremely barren, and the crops grow like dogtail grass. The consequence is that the yield per mu in Europe is less than half of that in China.With such a tragic food production, coupled with frequent wars and epidemics, it is understandable that Europe's population growth is extremely slow, and because of this, Europeans do not value land.In the age of great voyages, countless European navigators sailed to sea, not to open up territories, but to find gold, silver, and spices. As for raising their own national flag on a certain island and bringing it under the rule of the empire... Hehe, then It was just to continue to plunder wealth, and it never occurred to me to develop the land I already occupied.

At this time, although Spain was a little bit powerless, it was still the overlord of Europe, ruling the entire South America and Southeast Asia. It had a much wider territory than Ming Dynasty, and even had the most suitable farming and animal husbandry in the world, and it was also the most suitable for settlement. In the La Plata Plain, from Daming's point of view, this small family is really rich.However, Spain has never paid much attention to the land they own. They are only interested in what their land produces, and they have never thought about developing it.They brought back a large amount of silver from South America, but most of the silver became luxury goods for warships and nobles, and did not become the salary of the army, bridges, roads, and water conservancy projects. To develop colonies, even domestic land has not been developed much.This has led to the extremely weak foundation of Spain's hegemony. They are only strong in the military, and their commerce and agriculture are very poor.Of course, the Spaniards knew nothing about this, they were still immersed in the sense of superiority of a dominant family, this time they suffered a big defeat in Asia, thousands of soldiers were captured, and the whole of Spain was shaken. Back to those soldiers, they exchanged the La Plata Plain that Yang Menglong was interested in without hesitation—in their eyes, thousands of soldiers were far more important than that plain without gold or silver mines!
Yang Menglong spoke dryly, and finally let Zhu Yujian understand what was going on.Thinking about Spain, which has thousands of miles of fertile land but disdaining to develop it, and thinking about the Tianxiong Army who has already planted the fields in the Hexi Corridor, he can't help feeling a little sad: Isn't the gap too big?

"You mean, return the prisoners of war in exchange for that plain as Ming's overseas territory?" Zhu Yujian asked.

Yang Menglong nodded quickly: "Yes, yes, now is the best time, the Spaniards are not interested in the La Plata Plain, and the natives of the La Plata Plain have been slaughtered and expelled by them, and there are very few left. If not, when will you wait?"

Zhu Yujian sighed: "After hearing your bragging so much, I was really moved. It's just... this is too far away? Even if it is occupied, it will be difficult to find people who are willing to immigrate there. Isn't this useless? ?"

Yang Menglong shouted: "No one wants to immigrate there, so you can't help it? What a joke! There are hundreds of thousands of prisoners locked up in prisons across the country, why not just throw them all over? If not enough, you can build a big prison and exile them." If two or three million people pass by, it’s done, isn’t it?”

Zhu Yujian was stunned: "Xing...xing the prison!?"

Yang Menglong said confidently: "That's right, once Jiannu came, how many people did you see surrendered? These guys are all guilty! Not only are they guilty, but their guys are also implicated, so you just follow the vine and find out all the people involved Then let's go into exile, isn't your old Zhu family very good at this?"

Zhu Yujian roared angrily: "What do you mean our old Zhu family is very good at this? Is there anyone who talks like that!?"

Yang Menglong said: "You are so excited, I have wronged your old Zhu's family? The Hu Weiyong case, the Lanyu case, the Guo Huan case, and the Kongyin case that were rectified by Taizu, and the Zhulian ten clans that were rectified by Chengzu, one of them is better than others. A slip, where the butcher's knife is directed, blood flows into rivers! Now you are not asked to follow their example and kill the whole world to blood into rivers, but just exile the guilty people overseas! And after ten or 20 years of exile, they can choose to be It’s very humane to settle there when you come back, you may not get a good reputation in the present age, but the benefits will last forever!”

Zhu Yujian glared at this bastard fiercely and gritted his teeth and said: "Sooner or later I will be destroyed in your hands! Okay, you can do whatever you want, it's up to you. Anyway, if you mess up, I will jump with you even if I jump off the building. Get down!"

Having said that, the emperor of Ming Dynasty was still very interested in occupying a vast and fertile plain overseas... The output of chemical fertilizers is increasing year by year, and the output of grain is also increasing year by year. Many sea merchants have discovered many overseas The islands covered with guano are excellent raw materials for making fertilizers. Once they are developed, the grain output of Daming will increase rapidly.Correspondingly, with the sharp increase in food production, the population will naturally also increase sharply. There have been signs of this in the Heluo area in recent years.A group of mathematicians spent a whole year doing data simulations and came to the conclusion that if the grain output of the whole country can reach two-thirds of the Heluo area, then within 50 years, the population of Daming will double. , even faster!This number scared Zhu Yujian, who was still a prince at the time, into a cold sweat. Now that the population of nearly [-] million is too much for Ming Dynasty, the double increase... definitely can't be covered!We must find a way to grab a few pieces of land and prepare for the future!And the condition of the La Plata Plain is so superior, it would be too stupid not to take it over!

After making up his mind, His Majesty the Emperor called a cabinet meeting and threw out the idea.Unsurprisingly, this idea was opposed by most of the ministers. They thought that Daming had a vast land and rich resources. Although it would be a bit of pressure to usher in the peak period of population growth in the future, didn’t we still have many places to develop?Huguang has not been fully developed, and Liao has not been developed at all. These are good places with fertile land and thousands of miles. If the prisoners really want to open the border, let the prisoners develop these places. Why throw them overseas?If it doesn’t work, then immigrate to Annan. Doesn’t Annan have the fertile Red River Plain and the Mekong River Delta? They are both good places to feed tens of millions of people.On the one hand, the ministers who hold this opinion are out of confidence in Daming, thinking that Daming is the best place in the world, and on the other hand, they are a little bit impatient.Traveling across the oceans in this day and age is a life-threatening job. When a storm comes, it is not uncommon for the entire boat to be buried in fish belly. Those traitors are certainly hateful, but it would be a bit cruel to exile them overseas one by one. What's the difference between killing them and killing them?No, absolutely not!
However, several important ministers headed by Fang Yizhi stood on the side of Emperor Longwu with a clear banner.These few people who have governed the Heluo area for a long time are extremely impressed by the explosive population growth in the Heluo area after the agricultural and medical technologies have been greatly improved.In the past, the entire Nanyang area had a population of only 40 million. What about now?There are more than this number of residents in Nanyang City.Of course, the growth point is mainly concentrated on immigrants, but the frenzy of baby births cannot be ignored. If this kind of explosive growth occurs in all provinces of the country, it will be a disaster. It must be prepared in advance.Fang Yizhi firmly believed that since the Spaniards were so stupid and sent such a good piece of land to us, there was no reason for us to refuse. Damn it, Xingda Prison exiles 300 million people there!If it is not enough, then recruit immigrants from Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, and Lianghuai. These places have scarce arable land and life is difficult. Presumably the farmers in these provinces are happy to emigrate and become small landlords abroad...

The supporters and the opponents had a heated argument, and the faces were red-faced. Everyone had good reasons, and no one could convince the other.After arguing for several days without any result, Zhu Yujian had no choice but to stare at Yang Menglong who was pretending to be dead: "You made up the matter, you settle it!"

Yang Menglong stretched his waist and said, "This...doesn't seem like there's anything to be arguing about? My lords, the emperor didn't call you here to ask for your opinions, but to ask you to come up with a feasible overseas immigration plan! "

Zou Weilian has a firm attitude: "This matter must not be done! Even now, Qiongzhou Prefecture is still regarded as the remotest corners of the earth, not to mention exile millions of people overseas, thousands of miles away from their hometowns, and never return for life. Never!"

Yang Menglong said: "I never said that they would not be able to return for life. They can still come back after staying overseas for more than ten or twenty years. Everyone, I know that you think that the Ming Dynasty is rich in resources and look down on the barbaric lands overseas. This is very strange. Normal, we have been thinking this way for thousands of years, I understand. But, is the Ming Dynasty really a vast land and rich in resources? Shaanxi is extremely arid, even the Guanzhong Plain is becoming increasingly barren; Shanxi is also arid, with crisscrossing mountains and scarce cultivated land; Henan Although Hebei has a flat terrain, it is always facing the threat of Yellow River flooding. The money spent on regulating the Yellow River every year is an astronomical amount, and due to over-cultivation, there are more and more saline-alkali lands! I am too lazy to talk about Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi. , with more mountains and less land, it is so vast and sparsely populated that it cannot support many people, let alone Mongolia. It is just a thin layer of soil with sand underneath. After burning the wasteland, you can get a good harvest for several years, but the soil quickly It will degrade and eventually turn into a desert! Although Liao land is fertile, it is too cold. It is estimated that people who are willing to immigrate... After counting, it seems that Hunan, Hubei and Jiangnan are better, but these lands can support the same population. It’s limited.” At this point, he spread his hands together: “It’s just such a small place, I really can’t think of any qualifications for us to call ourselves big and rich!”

All the ministers frowned.Not to mention, according to Yang Menglong, the land in China is really not that good.North China is too dry, the northeast is too cold, the northwest is barren, and the south is too small. It is difficult for these lands to support a population of [-] million. If there is a wave of explosive growth, it will be a lot of fun.

Yang Menglong clapped his hands, Zaji Chongweng came in carrying a bamboo basket, and lifted the cloth covering it, revealing a pile of dark, metallic stones, which were handed out one by one, and everyone had a share.When the ministers took it, they felt that their hands were heavy, and when the two stones touched, they jingled.Zhang Tong exclaimed in surprise: "Pig iron!?"

Yang Menglong said: "You guessed it right, it's pig iron. But it's not smelted in a blast furnace, but picked up in a mine."

Zou Weilian was very surprised: "Which place is this ore produced, it's so... so..." I can't describe it.

Yang Menglong said: "Overseas, a sparsely populated continent. Last year, an expedition fleet from Guangdong stayed there for several months and brought back a large amount of ore. These iron ores are part of it." The ores collided with force, making a loud noise, and sparks splashed: "We always think that we have a large land and rich resources, but let's go out and have a look. The iron ore slag from others is much stronger than the ore we selected. We have What qualifications do we have to boast of being rich in land and resources! The rotten land that people hate so much is a hundred times better than our carefully managed agricultural reclamation area, what right do we have to be complacent! Don’t take advantage of the fact that the population of Xiyi is still small, and don’t want those good places to grab those lands, Is it possible that they have to wait until they make up their minds to develop overseas territories before going to fight for it?"

The officials were speechless, they just looked at the ore in their hands, which was similar to pig iron, with a green light in their eyes.

(End of this chapter)