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When Huang Laifu brought Jiang Dazhong and Yang Xiaolu back to Wuzhai Fort, it was already dark, and his family was waiting for Huang Laifu to have dinner.

At this time, Huang Laifu was still full of excitement. He greeted Huang Sihao and Yang, and then returned to his room. His coat was wide and his computer bag was wrapped around his waist. No one could tell. After entering his room, he put the computer bag in a wooden box beside the kang, calmed down his excitement, and then went to the lobby to have dinner.

After eating some, Huang Laifu went back to his room. Yang said from behind: "Why is this child not having an appetite at night?"

Huang Laifu closed the door, lit the oil lamp, leaned against the kang and flipped through the computer. Although he had Huang Laifu's past memories, he still didn't know the specific location of Wuzhai Fort in later generations.

At this time, he opened the national satellite map information and the historical data map of Wuzhai Fort during the Ming Dynasty. Then he discovered that Wuzhai Fort was the Wuzhai County in Xinzhou City, Shanxi Province in later generations. It was located in the northwest of Shanxi Province, bordering Shenchi County in the east, Kelan County in the west, Ningwu County in the south, and Pianguan County in the northwest and Hequ County. The total area is about 1,391.3 square kilometers.

Later, Wuzhai County had a population of about 100,000. At this time, Wuzhai Fort even the main army and the families of various military households were only a few thousand. At this time, Wuzhai Fort, Bietouguan, Hequ, Shenchi, and Ningwu Forts were all established at the end of the county.

This is my own development base. It is a small county with a land of only more than 1,000 square kilometers and a population of less than 6,000. What should I do?

Huang Laifu looked at the situation in Wuzhai County in later generations and tried to find some inspiration for his development. He found some relevant introduction materials next to a map of Wuzhai County:

The terrain of Wuzhai County is high in the southeast and low in the northwest. The central part is from south to north is the Pingchuan character "Ding", with an area of ​​about 164 square kilometers.

The total land area of ​​the county is 2.087 million mu, of which 600,000 mu of arable land area, accounting for 28.7% of the total land area of ​​the county; the forest area is 747,000 mu, accounting for 36% of the total area of ​​the county; the granary area is 500,000 mu, accounting for 24% of the total area of ​​the county. The limestone, granite and clay in the county are widely distributed, with large reserves and broad development prospects.

The main rivers are Zhujiachuan River, Countychuan River, Lanyi River, Qinglian River, and Lujiao River, which are one of the Fushui counties in northwest Shanxi.

Wuzhai County is a major agricultural and breeding county. The main grain crops include potatoes, buckwheat, corn, minced grains, beans and other small grains; especially potatoes, the annual planting area of ​​the county is stable at more than 200,000 mu, accounting for one-third of the total arable land area.

When he saw the potato, Huang Laifu shook his head regretfully. According to the information he knew and found, potato, the thing with the nickname Potato, and sweet potato, the thing with the nickname Sweet Potato, was introduced from Luzon to the second place of Fujian, Guangdong, about 1594 AD. The first time the person brought it was Chen Fulong, Lin Huailan, Chen Jinglun and others. They were to be spread to Shanxi and widely promoted, and it was not until the fall of the Ming Dynasty.

If high-yield crops such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn were introduced to Shanxi and Shaanxi decades earlier, and the locals had food to eat, there might not have been any mobs like Li Zicheng who broke up with him.

Although potatoes and sweet potatoes are not good, these two are good things. In the Ming Dynasty, even if the crops were in good weather, the annual grain output of a mu was only 300 to 400 kilograms, which was still fertile land. In the event of disaster, they would have no grain harvest at all.

The harvest of potatoes and sweet potatoes is calculated in tons, and the yield per mu is several thousand kilograms. Even corn is much higher than that of crops such as grains and wheat. Moreover, the three do not occupy fertile fields. They can all be cultivated in the dry and mountainous lands where rice and wheat cannot be planted. The soil of the land can even be improved and the large area of ​​uncultured land can be turned into land for arable wheat and rice.

Although these grains have a slightly worse taste, when people are about to starve to death during a disaster, who cares whether the food they eat is good or bad? It is always much better than the bark, grass roots, and Guanyin soil. Moreover, in terms of nutrition, potatoes and sweet potatoes contain a lot of starch and a variety of vitamins, which is not worse than cereals and wheat.

Regrets are regrets, sighs are sighs. High-yield crops such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn will not fall from the sky. Even if you go to Guangdong, Fujian and other places to look for these crops, who knows where they are?

With a vast sea of ​​people and a vast area, it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. I found it. I don’t know what year it was. Now, I have walked from Shanxi to Guangdong and then walked back, and then looked for some crops that are not common to the locals. How many years will it take, two years, three years, or five years?

However, no matter what, Huang Laifu decided to send his subordinates as soon as possible to search for these high-yield crops in Guangdong, Fujian and other places. If you can't find them in Guangdong and Fujian, you can go to Luzon and other places as far as you can find them. One day earlier, one day earlier is his own blessing, and it is also a blessing for the people of the Ming Dynasty.

The prospects are beautiful and bright, but the distance cannot quench the near thirst. The most important thing now is to solve the food problem of Wuzhaibao military households first.

For the people in the north and the soldiers in the important towns of Jiubian, the weather has been a bit strange in recent years, either a great cold or a severe drought. God seems to have never stopped.

This year is the 17th year of Wanli. Fortunately, the climate is just a bit abnormal. Beijing is short of rain in summer. The epidemic is prevalent in May and June, and the drought is extended to Shandong. However, Nanzhili has suffered from water due to excessive rainfall. After autumn, there will be another earthquake in Shanxi, which is still relatively dull.

But last year, that is, the 16th year of Wanli, it was a terrible drought in Shaanxi and Shanxi. In the spring of the year, the bean and wheat grouting season was filled with green and grouting for a long time, and there was no rain. In addition, the strong winds were blowing, and the harvest was only 20% or 30% of the harvest. From June to August, the drought and rain were not allowed. The autumn seedlings planted were burning, and the autumn grains were gone.

The disaster area covers some prefectures and counties in Xi'an, Yan'an, Qingyang, Fengxiang and Gongchang. Farmers from all over the country were frightened and fled to beg for life.

As for such a serious famine, Emperor Wanli had to do his best to provide disaster relief. He was busy until the end of the year before he breathed a sigh of relief.

To be honest, the days of worrying have been passed by Emperor Wanli for many years. Since the early years of Wanli, God has obviously become more and more problematic, either floods in the south or droughts in the north.

The result of various frequent disasters is that not only the people in the north are worried about food and clothing, but the problems of military and civilians on the nine borders are also very serious. The Ming Dynasty army implemented the military farm system, and the Ming Dynasty army concentrated in the important towns on the nine borders. These nine border towns were all in the north, and severe droughts occurred frequently all year round, resulting in sharp decline in military farm harvests, and even some years still had no grains.

If the military farming cannot be self-sufficient, the Ming government needs to send military pay and food to the Ming government. In addition, long-term internal and external troubles have led to a sharp increase in military expenditure. During the reign of Emperor Yingzong, the military pay was only tens of thousands of taels per year. By the early Wanli period, the military expenditure was as high as more than 8 million taels. In the 20th year of Wanli, the three major levies of Ningxia, Korea and Bozhou were rushing to 14.6 million taels. From the 46th year of Wanli to the seventh year of Tianqi, the military expenditure was more than 60 million taels in the Later Jin Dynasty in the 10 years.

As the disaster worsens year by year and wars continue, by the 30th year of Wanli, the old warehouse was about to be exhausted, and the grain in the capital was exhausted, and there was no branch of the past year in Taicang. Since ancient times, there has never been a public or private scarcity today. In the 36th year of Wanli, Wang Ruolin was ordered to inspect the warehouse. The founder of the warehouse was only 80,000 taels of silver, and the outer warehouse was gone. At the same time, the military pay owed more than 1 million taels. From the 38th year of Wanli to the 7th year of Tianqi, the military pay owed in each border town reached more than 9.6 million taels.

The food and wages in the border towns were exhausted to a great extent. By the end of the Wanli period, especially after the crisis in Liaodong, the national finances were basically unable to make up for the situation, resulting in the failure of the war against the Later Jin Dynasty.

The military households of Wuzhai Fort did not understand the above situation. They only knew that due to natural disasters, the military farms belonging to Wuzhai Fort had not been harvested for several years. Their current life can only rely on the little pitiful monthly food sent from the above every year, and they don’t know when such a day will be the beginning. The military life of Wuzhai Fort that Huang Laifu saw was just a microcosm of the lives of the military households in Jiubian Jun Town at that time.

The harsh and repeated climate made the northern military and civilians of the Ming Dynasty at a loss. What happened to God? Huang Laifu knew that such a tragic life would continue in the future, and it would last for decades, and the more serious it would be.

This is the famous "Little Ice Age" in history. It has been two times in Chinese history, one during the Five Barbarians' Invasion of China, and the other during the late Ming Dynasty. Especially from 1580 to 1644, the temperature suddenly dropped to its lowest point in a thousand years.

The precursors of the catastrophe can be traced back to the early Jiajing period, and began to become obvious in the 13th year of Wanli (1585), but it rose and fell from time to time, and it began to intensify around 1600 years, and the Chongzhen period reached the peak of the catastrophe. The entire temperature recovery did not recover until around 1650 after the demise of the Ming Dynasty.

The extreme cold caused the rainfall area to move southward, which led to almost continuous disasters across the country in the Ming Dynasty. Before Qin and Jin, later Heluo, followed by Qi, Lu, Wuyue, Jingchu, and Sanfu, and a nationwide drought occurred. At the same time, the plague began to spread, and the plague that affected several provinces in North China finally broke out in Shanxi. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, it spread to the Gyeonggi area, which directly led to the easy capture of Beijing.

Long-term and high-density disasters were fatal to a huge empire. In the book "A Brief History of the Henan Changes", Zheng Lian, a native of Shangqiu, Henan, made a detailed statistical chronology on the disasters in the entire Henan province during the Chongzhen period, which was shocking after reading them.

"...... Chongzhen drought in 3 years. 4 years. Five years. Zhengzhou flood in 6 years. The Yellow River ice is as solid as a rock. 7 years. Summer drought locusts in 8 years. Huaiqing Yellow River ice is ice. Summer drought locusts in 9 years. Summer drought locusts in 9 years. Summer drought locusts in Kaifeng Shangqiu flood in 10 years. Summer drought locusts in 11 years. Heavy drought locusts in 12 years. Heavy drought locusts in 13 years. Shangcai land cracked, Luoyang earthquake, and people ate each other. Heavy famine began in February 2014, and the summer drought locusts were ate like harvesting. Huaiqing earthquake in 15 years. The Yellow River broke out in Kaifeng in 15 years. "

"A Brief History of the Yu Break" also copied the full text of Lu Weiqi's memorial to the court. Lu was once the Minister of War and retired at home. He witnessed the severe disaster in Henan and did not vomit or feel happy. The memorial was written in the seventh year of Chongzhen, and every word was exhausted and he couldn't bear to read it.

Huang Laifu's eyes remained on the computer. In history, the Ming Dynasty, which created a splendid civilization, but suffered from suffering, did not survive in 1644. Although the disaster gradually eased and eventually returned to normal a few years later, high-yield crops such as potatoes and sweet potatoes were quickly promoted. Can his arrival change the fate of the Ming Dynasty?

"...In October, the golden autumn is full of fruits. On October 29, the reporter learned from relevant departments of Wuzhai County that the autumn harvest work in Wuzhai County is about to succeed, achieving a bumper harvest of grain production for four consecutive years. It is expected that the total grain output this year can reach 220 million jin, an increase of 51 million jin from the previous year, a year-on-year increase of 30.4%, setting a record high of historical levels..."

Huang Laifu's eyes stopped in a report from Wuzhai County in later generations. Gradually, he made a decision to give priority to the development of agriculture in Wuzhaibao. Anyway, Wuzhai County in later generations was also a major agricultural county.

Although Huang Laifu has a lot of modern industrial and commercial technology information in his computer, Huang Laifu decided to develop agriculture first, which is what he can do with his current conditions. Wuzhai Fort originally focused on military farming. Of course, industry and commerce must also develop, but we will talk about it after the Wuzhai Fort army generals have enough food and clothing and have money and food.

Priority is given to farmers, which is a decision made by Huang Laifu after careful consideration.

The Ming Dynasty will fall into the Little Ice Age within decades, with frequent disasters and serious shortage of grain output. It can be said that it will have bright prospects in the next few decades, and there will be no worries about the lack of market. If you can solve the problem of food for the Wuzhaibao military households at that time, and then use the point to lead the whole, and solve or alleviate the problem of food in the Ming Dynasty, it will be the result of both fame and fortune.

Moreover, Huang Laifu believes that vigorously developing commerce will not bring any good results when agriculture is unstable. In this regard, the Ming Dynasty has learned profound lessons.

In the late Ming Dynasty, commerce was extremely developed, especially during the Wanli, Tianqi and Chongzhen dynasties, overseas trade was huge, resulting in a large amount of silver flowing into China. Incomplete statistics, the amount of silver flowing into China from overseas in the late Ming Dynasty was as high as more than 500 million taels of silver.

However, so much silver poured in, it inevitably led to inflation, the prices of various commodities soared, and the prices of grain soared, and the two poles of the rich and poor became more and more serious, causing many problems.

When agriculture is unstable and grain production is insufficient, the prosperity of commercial trade will lead to another problem. For example, in the grain production center of the Ming Dynasty, the people in the Jiangnan area saw the benefits of commerce and felt that growing grain was not cost-effective, so they used large areas of land to plant economic crops, which further reduced grain output. This is the so-called controversy like rice and mulberry.

Originally, the northern part of the Ming Dynasty had been in a small ice age for decades, and the food was already seriously insufficient. In addition, the grain output in the south was declining year by year, which led to the further shortage of food in the Ming Dynasty, and the price of grain was rising steadily. The soaring grain price led to the rise of all items, forming a vicious cycle and exacerbating social conflicts.

This is typical farmless instability.

Agriculture is unstable, and the people have no food. No matter how prosperous the business is, it is rootless duckweed and falls when the wind blows. Therefore, in the face of the extremely low grain productivity in ancient times, coupled with frequent disasters and backward transportation, China's "focus on agriculture and suppress commerce" policy for thousands of years is not unreasonable.

No matter how developed the business was in the late Ming Dynasty, it could not save the social collapse caused by the collapse of agriculture. It added fuel to the fire, adding fuel to the fire.

Moreover, there is another point that the development of commerce in the late Ming Dynasty and the large inflow of silver did not bring any benefits to the national finances. The national finances were still tight. Because the trade dividends were basically divided up by the big merchants and literati officials. The common people and the government were victims of inflation.

On the one hand, the founding of the Ming Dynasty was a society dominated by small and medium-sized landlords and self-cultivated farmers. In terms of fiscal revenue, a simple small peasant society has always been referenced. This kind of various systems, including the financial system, formulated from the small peasant society, is difficult to change with the development of society, and officials generally do not have the ability to cope with various environmental changes.

These literati officials often feel disconnected from the development or recession of the private economy, and they are in a dark way and have no idea to start. Not to mention facing the complex changes in the commercial society. Naturally, the country's taxes and budgets cannot be increased or reduced accordingly. Many officials of the Ming Dynasty were not aware of the changes in social commercial wealth, and had no concept of increasing taxes in business at all. They would only focus on the poor farmers in an inertia.

On the other hand, in the late Ming Dynasty, the economic focus of the entire country had shifted to industry and commerce. At this time, the civil servant group had colluded with merchants, and to a certain extent, the civil servant group was the spokesperson of merchants. They divided up a large number of commercial trade dividends. If the court and the emperor thought of increasing the country's fiscal revenue from the business aspect, they would be frantically obstructed by the civil servant group.

For example, Emperor Wanli, who supported them to block the situation, issued a tax increase in business tax due to the three taxes, and then increased the tax on mining taxes. He was scolded by civil servants, big merchants, and later the Tatars royal slaves who had ulterior motives.

To be honest, Huang Laifu disagrees with the additional payment of three wages. This is increasing the burden on farmers, and they originally had a heavy burden. However, Huang Laifu agrees with the mining tax and the increase in commercial tax.

Merchants and literati occupied 90% of the country's wealth at that time, so what if they paid some taxes? They are all citizens of the country. You merchants and officials have no obligation to pay taxes. You must put the burden on the farmers. Although some merchants were hurt by mining taxes, the two harms were the least! It is better to make merchants cry than to make farmers cry. Merchants cry, the country is just a little chaos, and farmers cry and rebel, and the country will suffer the disaster of national destruction.

This is obvious to Emperor Chongzhen. Because of the deception of the civil servants, Emperor Chongzhen vigorously reduced and exempted commercial taxes, and transferred most of the national tax burden to the common people, making the rich richer and the poor have no chance of survival. Although he was awarded the title of some literati and wise rulers, it also increased social conflicts and accelerated the pace of national destruction.

In the end, Emperor Chongzhen was destroyed and died, and those civil servants and merchants who forgot justice for their own interests did not get any good results. They either died under the swords of bandits such as Li Zicheng or the swords of barbarians, or they would have money, rat-tailed pig-tails, and a slave to follow the people. The wealth they had accumulated with hard work, ranging from tens of thousands of taels to hundreds of thousands of taels and millions of taels of silver, also became the wealth of others, or turned into dust. The so-called skin is not preserved, where will the hair be attached?

Therefore, before agriculture is unstable, food is insufficient, and the national fiscal system is unreasonable, the more prosperous the business, the greater the negative effects it will bring.

On the other hand, if agriculture develops, food is abundant and people's needs are rich and diverse, industry and commerce will develop naturally. At this time, the development of commerce will not be able to stop it even if you want to. Moreover, commerce will be well combined with agriculture to better promote social development.

Looking at the world, this is also true. Typical examples are Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries.

It is generally believed that the agricultural revolution in the UK led to the industrial revolution. At that time, the huge demand for food in the growth of the population of Britain and Europe led to the private and national land enclosure movement in the UK. The operation method of large-scale land farms had an absolute advantage in rural Britain. This operation method of large-scale land farms greatly promoted the development of British agriculture, and the arrival of the golden age of agriculture in Britain.

The British agricultural revolution created the necessary prerequisites for the development of the industrial revolution. It not only provided the necessary food and raw materials for the industrial revolution, but also created a large army of free labor and a vast domestic market, but also accumulated strong capital for the industrial revolution.

Finally, the development of British agriculture accelerated the prosperity of British commerce. The two were integrated and promoted. When they developed to a certain extent and productivity could not meet the market demand, they naturally needed to improve relevant technologies, so the industrial revolution dominated by machines began.

The history of modern Britain's development is a relatively successful history. Huang Laifu hopes to absorb things that are useful to himself and the country from the successful development of other countries. That night, he kept checking relevant information until the computer was insufficient, and then he reluctantly went to bed.

And that night, he also planned his future development plan.
Chapter completed!