Chapter 97: A Neglected Group of People
There is nothing much to say about the spring in Yanjing City except that it is windy and sandy.
The all-pervasive sand and dust are the main force that rules Yanjing City, and the emperor Yun Zhao is nothing.
Zhang Guozhu, the prefect of Shuntian Prefecture, is now further deepening the urban cleaning and sanitation campaign.
There are only two main tasks, one is to eliminate the smelly ditches in Yanjing City, and the other is the clean drinking water plan.
In Yanjing City, there are two huge smelly rivers, one is called Tongzi River and the other is called Gaoliang River.
Yanjing City has become one of the most important cities in China since the Yuan Dynasty. Therefore, during these hundreds of years, the people living in this city also ruined this land. Enough.
Among them, both sides of the Gaoliang River were originally low-lying swamps. After hundreds of years of changes, the low-lying lands on both sides of the Gaoliang River have been filled with garbage, gradually rising above the river, forming a new area of residents. district.
Since ancient times, garbage has been one of the main reasons forcing cities to die, and it is the most important reason.
Many ancient cities were not destroyed artificially, but were forced to relocate due to garbage. According to estimates by archaeologists under Si Tianjian, many cities in the Yin and Shang Dynasties disappeared. , because people have polluted cities. In order to have clean water sources and more resources, people have to abandon those cities and move elsewhere to continue pollution.
The sections of Tongzi River and Gaoliang River entering Yanjing City must be covered, otherwise, the feces and urine dumped by Yanjing City residents every day will completely turn this nice city into a smelly city.
The most unbearable thing is that with this two-stinking river, it has become a breeding place for mosquitoes and flies. When summer comes, the mosquitoes and flies here are overwhelming, like patches of black. of thick fog.
Lay cement pipes!
This is the decision Zhang Guozhu made.
To be honest, the reason why this decision was made was not to improve the living environment of Yanjing people, but because Xu Wuxiang built several huge cement workshops at the foot of Yanshan Mountain.
I originally thought that the products produced by these cement workshops would be in short supply. On the one hand, they must be supplied to Shanhaiguan to build city defenses, and on the other hand, they must be used by people in the Yanjing area to build houses.
Unfortunately, the reality deviated from expectations. Li Hongji, the founder of Liaodong, all ran away. At this time, there was no need to build the Shanhaiguan Fortress, and the road leading to Liaodong seemed to have also disappeared. There is no will to build.
This is very troublesome.
Seven or eight cement workshops support no less than 50,000 people.
I don’t know how many families these 50,000 people have supported. Now that cement cannot be sold, these people are about to drink from the northwest wind. With no other choice, Zhang Guozhu had to launch the Yanjing drainage and water supply plan.
Through these two huge projects, the cement plant near YanjingAll the cement produced was used up, which in turn promoted the habit of using cement among Yanjing people and prospered the market.
This kind of operation is a basic operation for the Lantian Dynasty, and there is nothing strange about it.
So, the entire Yanjing City became a huge construction site. Because of the simultaneous construction, most of the main roads were dug into wide and deep trenches.
Yun Zhao likes the feeling of turning the city into a large construction site...Back then, he also wanted to dig the city like this, but he never had the chance.
Now, he can dig wherever he wants. This feeling of freedom is very exciting.
This act of modifying a city is also a process of gradual self-improvement of a city. Every time a city is destroyed, the function of the city can be improved by one level.
Since the city is being renovated with national funds, that is, people’s money, this means that the people themselves are working hard to renovate their cities and prepare to give themselves a better living environment. In short, this This behavior is a forward behavior.
Although sometimes it seems stupid to see this kind of behavior, this scene can only be seen in cities that are constantly progressing and prospering. If the city's enterprising ability is insufficient, it will basically not be seen. Such a grand occasion.
This time the renovation of Yanjing City only involves water supply and drainage. When it comes to real action, it will almost have to dig up the entire streets of Yanjing City. This is not a small project. Judging from the current progress, it will take at least three years.
When Zhang Guozhu came back from Miyun, Xu Wuxiang built a reservoir in Huairou. After seeing it today, Zhang Guozhu felt that Xu Wuxiang was a bit stingy. The reservoir was in the mountains. It was not big and it mainly served its purpose. It is the function of irrigating farmland. Because it is not large enough, the area of irrigated farmland is very small and cannot play a big role.
He plans to expand the reservoir more than ten times. Only in this way can all the farmland near Yanjing City be irrigated.
"The money in the treasury must be spent as soon as possible..."
Zhang Guozhu came to Yun Zhao's palace and sat down tiredly, his expression seemed even more depressed.
Yun Zhao looked at Zhang Guozhu and said strangely: "Weren't you always worried about making ends meet?"
Zhang Guozhu sighed and said: "The prices of bulk commodities have been falling all the way, and if they continue to fall, Everyone will lose money."
Yun Zhao said with a smile: "Haven't the linen and homespun cloths in the Prime Minister's Office been taken out?"
Zhang Guozhu said with a bitter smile: "Food. Where's the steel? Where's the cement? I never thought that one day I would have too much food to eat." Yun Zhao looked at Zhang Guozhu and said with a sneer. It’s the Prime Minister’s Office of your country. It’s also the Prime Minister’s Office of your country where there is too much food to eat. As far as I know, in the Ming Dynasty, there are still very few people who can afford white rice and white flour. Most people still eat corn, millet, and sweet potatoes. , potatoes to satisfy hunger.
In the past, I suggested lowering taxes, but none of you agreed.Regarding this matter, they always say that I don’t know when a hungry man is hungry when I am full, and they all want to collect every last bite of food from the people’s grain bags.
Okay, now that we have harvested enough, I will watch what you do, watch how you let the food in the granary slowly rot, watch how you make so much steel slowly rust. , and it also depends on how you let so much cement slowly become ineffective due to moisture. "
"Taxation is the foundation of the country. How can it be decided just because of your Majesty's words?
Besides, we have exempted 80% of the exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and only charge regular taxes, which are still 10% tax. The most important thing is that we pay taxes based on acres of land. If there are no acres of land, we don’t have to pay taxes.
This is the great benevolence, right?
If we follow His Majesty’s words and lower the agricultural tax to thirty-one tax, it is not impossible. However, if we do this, the people will forget that there is a country. It will greatly reduce our political foundation - the village chief system.
Without collecting agricultural taxes, the district chiefs will have no basis to rule the local people. If the district chief system is destroyed, we will not have tears to cry.
Yes, the Han Dynasty was indeed considered a light corvee and a small amount of tax. The state stipulated that only one-fifteenth of the people's income was collected a year. In fact, only one-thirty was collected. During the Han Dynasty, even ten No agricultural tax has been collected in a year.
But, have you ever counted the military service, forced labor, the calculated tax for adults, and the oral tax for children during the Han Dynasty?
Taking these into account, the taxes of the Han Dynasty were more than a hundred times heavier than those of the Ming Dynasty!
Just one military service takes up most of the time of all men in the world. The oral salary is 23 yuan a year, and the calculated salary is 60 yuan a year.
I have heavy taxes in the Ming Dynasty. Businessmen, agricultural taxes are already as low as they can be.
Your Majesty should now consider how to spend what you have in hand, instead of mocking the humble minister here. "
"Use it to build roads——"
"There are more than 37,000 miles of roads being renovated this year. Any more roads will affect people's livelihood. "
"Building railways——"
"Two railways have been laid out this year, the Baocheng Railway and the Luoyan Railway. We have no spare technical manpower. New railways are being developed. "
"Then build ships, build giant iron-clad ships! "
"Sixteen ironclad ships are under construction, and among them, even the steam giant ship that I hope for in this article is also being tested and manufactured. This is already our greatest capability. "
Yun Zhao frowned and walked around the house twice before saying, "Have we really reached the point where we have too much money and no place to use it? ”
Zhang Guozhu shook his head and said: “No, it’s because there is a surplus of things we produce, such as grain, steel, cement, beef, mutton, and dairy products. This is true for many things. I haven’t yet.” Talking about porcelain, silk, paper, these things can be traded by sea.
The common people are not so rich that they lack nothing. On the contrary, theyThey are short of everything, just because the price of food has dropped, the price of raised pigs, chickens, ducks and geese has dropped, and they don't have much money to buy other things. ”
After listening to Zhang Guozhu’s words, Yun Zhao was silent for a moment. He finally understood why this kind of problem occurred in Ming Dynasty - that is, the process of industrial and commercial production far exceeded agricultural production. process.
As a result, the speed of progress of the two no longer matches, and there is no way to form a closed cycle.
The consequence of this problem is that industry, commerce, With a large amount of output, the people of Ming Dynasty, who mainly focused on agriculture, could not keep up with them due to their low input-output ratio.
Zhang Guozhu saw Yun Zhao thinking, so he looked for it from the snack plate. It's a pleasant piece, put it in your mouth and chew it slowly. It seems that after leaving the problem to Huang Di, he, the prime minister, can sit back and relax.
"Do you have any good solutions? "
Yun Zhao gritted his teeth and asked in a low voice.
Zhang Guozhu threw the remaining pastry into his mouth, took a sip of tea, pressed it down and said: "Yes, we They all agreed that what Ming Dynasty needs to do now is to increase the price of agricultural products. The price of half a silver dollar for a hundred pounds of white rice is no longer in line with the current national conditions. "
Yun Zhaodao: "I remember that food prices were the cheapest during the prosperous times. Only in troubled times would food prices soar. ”
Zhang Guozhu sneered and said: “Now, our Ming Dynasty has few people, many livestock, good seeds, advanced agricultural tools, and complete water conservancy facilities. Does your Majesty still think that farming is a difficult task?
In addition, the Annan people were still transporting grain to the Ming Dynasty in boatloads. The grasslands continued to transport beef, mutton, and dairy products to the Ming Dynasty. After the sea ban was lifted, people began to farm the sea, animal husbandry and fishery.
The farmers were the most severely affected in the entire Ming Dynasty!
They have nothing to do except farming. When food is not valuable, they naturally become a vulnerable group of people. ”