Chapter 263: Crossing the river by feeling the stone

"Yes." Wang Ju nodded, "Growing sweet potatoes and potatoes, the yield of these two crops is much higher than that of rice and wheat. The yield of rice and wheat is only a few hundred kilograms per mu, but sweet potatoes and potatoes can reach a thousand kilograms. If the soil is fertile, it may even reach two thousand kilograms! Gu Dashang Gu, Cao Dashang, do you calculate, one thousand kilograms per mu, how many kilograms are 500,000 mu?"

Manager Cao Da said: "500 million jin! It's enough for a million people to eat for a year, and an average of one acre of land can support two people."

Manager Gu Da said: "The number of synthetic stones is about 2.6 million stones, and the market price of one stone of sweet potatoes in a good year is worth eight cents of silver, and 2.6 million stones is 2.08 million taels of silver! If it encounters a famine, the income will at least double! Well, according to this calculation, growing sweet potatoes and potatoes is actually not much worse than planting mulberry seedlings, and it is easier to do it."

Manager Cao Da said, "But that must be sold."

"How could it not be sold?" said the shopkeeper Gu Da. "At present, Shanxi is in a famine, with millions of people short of food and drink. Huguang has just suffered a military disaster, and millions of people are displaced and are waiting for dinner. In the future, the Central Army will definitely use troops to Shaanxi, Shanxi and Sichuan. At that time, hundreds of thousands of troops will also have to eat, so how can they not be sold?"

Manager Cao Da said: "If we plant, people will plant it, and they will not be able to sell it in a few years."

"It is to ask others to grow sweet potatoes and potatoes as well." Wang Ju said happily, "Our third brother said that introducing sweet potatoes and potatoes from Jiangnan to Huguang is only the first step. Next, we will promote them to Henan, Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces with Huguang as the center. In the northern five provinces, we will plant sweet potatoes and potatoes, so the Ming Dynasty will no longer have to starve to death."

Manager Cao said: "In this way, will the thieves and Jiannu also have sufficient military rations?"

Manager Gu Da said: "Shopkeeper Cao was too worried. It would take at least five to ten years to promote sweet potatoes and potatoes. At that time, the thief and Jiannu had long been pacified by the Marquis!"

Manager Cao scratched his head and said, "That's true. When that day comes, Russia wants to go back to his hometown to buy hundreds of acres of good land."

"There will be that day, and it's not far away." Wang Ju said this and bowed to the two, "I'll ask for the two big shopkeepers, Chuzhou and Wuchang."

Manager Cao Da and Manager Gu Da bowed and replied: "Boss, don't worry, go back to Nanjing. We will handle the matters in Chuzhou and Wuchang."

"It's been a labor."

Wang Ju finally bowed her hand, turned around and left.

Beijing, Forbidden City.

Since Fan Wencheng defected, Dorgon has no longer trusted the Han people. Hong Chengchou, who was far away in North Korea, was also recalled by Dorgon to Beijing and sent He Luo to North Korea to be the governor. As for the former Ming officials who first surrendered to the bandits and then surrendered to Jiannu, they were all thrown into prison by Dorgon.

Although North China has been in good weather since the beginning of spring, North China, Shanxi and Liaodong, and North Korea have been in a good mood, Dorgon was in a bad mood.

What bothered Dorgon was that the people of the Northern Zhili Prefectures were accelerating their escape to Henan and Shandong! By the beginning of May, the Northern Zhifu had nine out of ten households, and the total population had dropped to less than 500,000! There were only less than 30,000 people left in the huge Beijing city, and I felt lifeless when I walked on the street in broad daylight.

This matter has to start two months ago. More than 100,000 Mongolian cavalry carried out large-scale burning, killing and looting on Northern Zhili before returning to the grassland. Dorgon originally stipulated that the scope of the robbery was Xuanfu, Baoding, Zhending and Datong. However, the Mongolian cavalry, who were so angry that they could not stop at all, finally swept across the entire Northern Zhili, and even Yingtian Mansion was not spared.

Although Dorgon was furious, he had no choice but to do anything. At present, he did not dare to easily punish Mongolian troops. The Mongolian troops saw this and dared to burn, kill and loot without restraint! In the end, Dorgon had no choice but to mobilize the Eight Banners soldiers to participate in the robbery, otherwise after the Mongolian cavalry had finished robbing, the Eight Banners soldiers would not even be able to drink the leftovers.

Under the almost crazy burning, killing and looting of Mongolian cavalry and the Eight Banners Jiannu, the eight prefectures and two prefectures in the Northern Zhili were tragically destroyed, dozens of cities were destroyed, hundreds of thousands of houses were burned, millions of people were massacred, hundreds of thousands of young women were captured and slaves were sent to the grasslands, and the rest also fled to the surrounding provinces of Henan, Shanxi and Shandong.

During this bloody plunder, although Jiannu had robbed a lot of food, which was even enough for more than 50,000 Jiannu's army to eat for more than two years, Dorgon was not happy at all, because under Jiannu's rule, Beizhili had become a barren land. This result seemed to indirectly prove Fan Wencheng's foresight: Jiannu was not tenable at all in the pass, so it would be better to withdraw back to Liaodong as soon as possible.

There were also many voices within Jiannu who wanted to withdraw from the pass, but they were forcibly suppressed by Dorgon.

After all, Dorgon's strategic gaze was farther away than those Jiannu nobles who only knew how to massacre but did not know how to build. Dorgon knew that if he was withdrawn from outside the pass, it would be a strategic retreat, which means that the "Qing Dynasty" would change from strategic offensive to strategic defense on the Ming Dynasty from then on, which had a decisive impact on Mongolia, an ally.

By then, Mongolia would definitely terminate the affiliation with Jiannu, and Jiannu would become a small tribe outside the pass, a small tribe with a population of less than 300,000! The result was that Dorgon could not tolerate anyway, and he would not allow his father and brother's foundation to be destroyed in his hands.

Compared with Jiannu, the situation of the thief is not much better.

It was the beginning of spring, and the spring grain had not yet been harvested. The famine in Shaanxi was at its worst. Hundreds of people died in hunger every day, and the bandits were also hungry. As a result, Li Zicheng had no choice but to mobilize troops to attack Hanzhong, which was adjacent to Shaanxi, and tried to grab some food from Hanzhong to alleviate the famine.

However, due to the involvement of Wu Sangui in Shanxi, Li Zicheng did not dare to draw a large army to fight, so he only let the general Liu Zongmin lead 30,000 people to attack Hanzhong. As a result, he was defeated by Zhang Xianzhong's adopted son Li Dingguo. The 30,000 troops were almost destroyed. Liu Zongmin was also seriously injured and was almost captured alive by Li Dingguo.

Due to this disastrous defeat, Li Zicheng was no longer able to attack Zhang Xianzhong. Zhang Xianzhong was busy suppressing the rebellion of Sichuan prefectures, and he had no time to pay attention to Li Zicheng. The two families stopped their troops.

Nanjing Imperial Palace, Wenhua Hall.

A cabinet meeting related to the future destiny of the Ming Dynasty is underway. In addition to the cabinet chief Sun Chuanting, the second assistant Qian Qianyi and Lu Daqi, there are also the governors of the five provinces, Wang Pu, silk merchant Wang Ju, Yangzhou salt merchant Qian Kan, Hangzhou tea merchant Shen Yiguan, Songjiang cloth merchant Wei Xian, and Jiangxi porcelain merchant Huang Quan.

Wang Ju is the largest silk merchant and is a representative figure of the Shanxi business gang.

Qian Kan is the largest salt merchant and a representative figure of the Huizhou merchant gang.

Shen Yiguan is the largest tea businessman and a representative figure of Zhejiang businessmen.

Huang Quan is the largest porcelain merchant and a representative figure of Longyou Shangbang.

These four people represent four industries and four business groups, and there are a group of merchants who depend on each other behind them. They have amazing wealth, but due to the deliberate suppression of the court, they have no right to speak politically. For example, Gao Hongtu and others almost treat these merchants as Tang Monk’s meat and eat them.

However, now, due to the emergence of Wang Pu, the situation will become completely different. With the absolutely strong army in his hands and absolute control of the cabinet, Wang Pu has enough ability to improve the status of merchants. Wang Pu plans to combine merchants with the then schooners to form a new ruling class.

As for what kind of results will be produced in the end, Wang Pu could not predict and could only cross the river by feeling the stones.

"Well, since you're all, let's start."

Sun Chuanting's face was a little unnatural, Qian Qianyi and Lu Daqi were similar. They were not used to discussing the country's major policies and strategies with merchants. After all, in their hearts, the ranking of scholars, farmers, industry and commerce has been deeply rooted. Although merchants are rich, their social status is not even as good as farmers and woodcutters.

Wang Ju, Qian Kan, Chen Yiguan, and Huang Quan also seemed a little cramped. They held their knees with both hands and did not dare to breathe, for fear that their sitting posture would be funny. After Sun Chuanting finished speaking, they did not dare to answer easily. The merchants had no status in front of the official, not to mention that the person sitting opposite him was the auxiliary minister of the cabinet, who was the largest official in the Ming Dynasty.

Wang Pu saw the tension of the merchant and smiled and said, "The four big investors don't have to be nervous. Today I came to you just to discuss the details of the auction of the official workshop. Let me give you a brief introduction. First, this time the official business is transferred to private business and involves various industries such as salt, iron, silk, tea, porcelain, etc. The court will relax restrictions on all industries; second, the public auction time is set for half a month, and third, the relaxation of industry restrictions is not to let go. The court still needs to supervise industry and commerce, and also impose taxes. Now you have any questions to ask."

Wang Ju asked first: "Do you dare to ask the three cabinet masters whether the weaving bureau to be auctioned includes the houses of the Weaving Bureau, looms, inventory of silkworm cocoons, and all mulberry fields of the Weaving Bureau?"

Sun Chuanting said: "Of course, as long as the assets of the Weaving Bureau are all on the auction list."

Tea merchant Chen Yiguan asked: "Justice just said that the industry restrictions should be relaxed. Does it mean that villains can buy barren mountains and plant tea trees by themselves?"

Wang Pu couldn't help but frown, thinking that the businessman was a businessman.

This Shen is always cunning. If the restrictions are completely relaxed, he can spend a small amount of silver to buy wilderness and then cultivate tea mountains. He does not have to pay a high price to buy tea mountains from the government. If he promised him, the court would suffer certain losses in the short term, but in the long run, doing so can mobilize the enthusiasm of tea merchants, increase tea production, and promote tea trade, so that the court's tax revenue will also increase.

"Of course." Wang Pu replied without hesitation, "If you are unwilling to bid for the government's tea mountain, you can go to buy barren mountains and re-cultivate the tea mountain."

Chen Yiguan hurriedly said, "Well, that villain just asked casually. We naturally bought the tea mountain of the government, which was also considered as our Zhejiang tea merchants who put some meager strength on the court, haha."
Chapter completed!