The Ming Dynasty: The most ruthless imperial grandson, Old Zhu begged me not to kill him.

Chapter 430 The National Strength of the Ming Dynasty

"As for those primitive tribes, we can explain to them that they should submit to the Ming Dynasty's investiture and that troops and officials should be stationed there to govern them!"

"As for those who are blind and want to resist, we can only wipe them out!"

"Japan is also continuously mining silver, and fishermen along the coast are making a lot of money. Every time our fishing boats go out, they can catch a lot of things!"

"Fishing in the waters north of Japan is much more convenient, and some of the fish are so big that we can't finish them even after eating them for several days!"

Crown Prince Zhu Biao continued to ramble on, seemingly extremely excited.

"The factories set up in Jiangnan have also started raising chickens, ducks, fish, pigs, cattle, sheep and the like. In addition, with the fishing at sea, potatoes, corn and the like are also being planted continuously. The Ming Dynasty is not short of food at all now, and its grain reserves are extremely high!"

Zhu Yuanzhang was extremely excited and beamed with joy.

If Zhu Yuanzhang hadn't been so hungry that he couldn't get anything to eat, he would never have chosen the path of rebellion.

He saw countless people starving to death along the way.

Therefore, after he became emperor, he began to hoard grain.

He has stockpiled a lot of food so far, which is something he is very proud of.

However, it now seems that the amount of grain he counted was a drop in the ocean compared to the efforts made by Zhu Xiong Ying.

At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang seemed to realize something and his expression suddenly changed.

"I remember when Guo Huan was still alive, he colluded with officials in various places to sell all the grain in the granaries, causing them to consume all of our life-saving grain. When we investigated, they had burned down the granaries!"

"With so much grain stored in our granaries now, will these people continue doing this?"

"Should we centralize and manage all this grain?"

Zhu Xiong Ying shook his head after hearing this.

"There is no need for that. If all this grain is centrally managed, transporting it individually would require a lot of manpower and resources, and the amount of grain obtained would not be much, but rather much less. It would be a losing proposition!"

"The main reason those people dared to do this is because grain is extremely precious, and they can make a fortune no matter where they sell it!"

"But things are different now. Grain prices in our Great Ming Dynasty are very stable now. Every year, the government collects the grain from the people, and the prices are very reasonable!"

"The prices of grain in various regions are now set by the imperial court, so there's no profit to be made!"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang became displeased.

"Since Xiong Ying can lower the price of grain, why not lower it even more? That way, people won't have to spend more money to buy grain. Do you intend to profit from this?"

Zhu Xiong Ying shook his head and said with a smile.

"Grandpa, what are you thinking?"

“I am naturally happy when people are living well, but if the price of grain is too low, it is not a good thing for them.”

“When grain prices are too low, farmers suffer. If the price of grain is too low, the people cannot benefit from it. At that time, who will be willing to grow grain?” “Now, by using the government’s methods to maintain the price of grain at a stable level, it will be meaningless for merchants to hoard grain. After all, no matter how much grain they have, it will never be as much as the government’s grain!”

"Moreover, the reason they are conducting such large-scale grain surveys is that they want to sell this grain to other countries, or to sell it to the people during times of famine, in order to obtain greater profits!"

"But now there are large amounts of grain stockpiled everywhere, so such a situation simply cannot happen!"

"They are even less likely to have such thoughts about other countries!"

“We have specially established trading cities on the northern grasslands. With these places, grain can be supplied to the border in a continuous stream, so we don’t need these merchants at all!”

"As for transporting it to other places, it's not worth the risk, so there will be fewer and fewer merchants who resell grain on a large scale. Only a small number of people will continue to move grain around!"

"Because there aren't that many profits left, they won't be thinking about making much money anymore!"

"Of course, if we want to reduce the burden on the people, it's not impossible; we can use other methods instead!"

"For example, if we have enough money now, we can exempt them from the friendship tax and even reduce their agricultural tax. The economic pillar of our Great Ming Dynasty is not agriculture, so there is no need to collect so much agricultural tax. If less is collected, the people will live a better life!"

Zhu Yuanzhang and the Crown Prince were taken aback by these words.

They had never encountered anything like exempting agricultural taxes before, and if they could really accomplish such a thing...

Not only were they able to do such a thing throughout their dynasties, but they had never even heard of it before.

Upon careful consideration, this is indeed a feasible idea.

Although the agricultural tax set by Zhu Yuanzhang was the lowest in history, when other taxes and various other items were added together, it was not a small amount.

If the agricultural tax could truly be abolished for the people, then there would be true peace and order in the land, which would be incomparable to any of the prosperous eras that had occurred in previous dynasties.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang smiled and nodded. It seemed that Zhu Xiong Ying had already considered everything. Thinking of this, he nodded in satisfaction.

"I am very pleased that you have considered these aspects!"

"No, but you must not let your guard down in supervising those officials. They are all extremely greedy, especially when it comes to money. You must not be fooled by them!"

Zhu Xiong Ying nodded after hearing this.

"Please rest assured, Your Majesty, my Western Depot is already very powerful. They monitor those officials in various places, and those officials simply don't have the opportunity to do anything!"

With the involvement of the Imperial Guard under my grandfather's command, this matter becomes even easier. I don't believe any official would dare to risk execution by committing a crime against the grain!

Zhu Yuanzhang laughed heartily as he spoke.

"You've done quite a good job this time, so I'll reward you!"

At this moment, Zhu Yuanzhang took out a token from his pocket. Upon seeing this token, both Zhu Xiong Ying and Crown Prince Zhu Biao's expressions changed.

(End of this chapter)