I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 416 Zhu Houzhao's Ambition
"Brother, you don't think that I only have eyes for the Mongols, do you?" Zhu Houzhao's eyes flashed.

"My brother, you have great ambitions in your heart, and I dare not speculate on them."

Zhu Houzhao paused and said, "Come here! Take down the map on the wall and spread it on the ground!"

Hanging on the wall was a map of the entire Ming Dynasty. In Zhu Houxun's opinion, the painting was not particularly accurate, but it contained everything it should have.

Several eunuchs found a ladder and carefully took down the map on the wall and spread it on the ground. The map was so large that it covered the entire empty space in the living room.
Zhu Houzhao walked directly onto the map, stepped on the location of Hetao and said, "You are right, 'We can't rush the war against Mongolia!' We have won two great victories, but in fact we have only restored the battle line to the state it was during the Chenghua period. As long as we advance step by step, it is only a matter of time before the Tatars are defeated."

"But even if the Tatars are defeated, we cannot wipe them all out in such a vast grassland. The form of war will just become the same as it was during the time of Taizu and Taizong. Perhaps many ministers would be satisfied with this, but I think it is not enough, far from enough." Zhu Houzhao's tone became sonorous.

"The Ming Dynasty has lost so much in the past hundred years. I want to take it back bit by bit! The Oirat people in the northwest, the Tatars in the north, and the Jurchens in Liaodong, I will lead the army to conquer them one by one! None of them can escape!" Zhu Houzhao walked slowly on the map, stepping on every place name in the north of the Ming Dynasty!
"After defeating the enemies in the north, I will also defeat the enemies in the south. I will restore the Three Xuans and Six Weis established by Emperor Taizong in the south and recover Annan." Zhu Houzhao walked excitedly on the map.
Zhu Houxuan watched Zhu Houzhao's actions with a smile
"Do you think we, the descendants, are too unworthy, or are our ancestors Taizu and Taizong too powerful? Even if we conquer all these places, we are only restoring the territory of the Ming Dynasty to the state it was during the Taizu and Taizong periods," Zhu Houzhao suddenly sighed.

Zhu Houxuan's eyes flashed with a strange light, but he didn't say anything.
Zhu Houzhao did not want Zhu Houxun to answer this question. He became even more excited. "So it is not enough! It is far from enough. I not only want to restore the territory of Taizu and Taizong, but also expand the territory of Ming Dynasty and build a large territory for Ming Dynasty."

Zhu Houzhao spoke louder and louder, and became more and more excited, but Zhu Houxuan still looked at Zhu Houzhao with a smile on his face.
"So I really like your idea of ​​colonization. There is no place to be developed around the Ming Dynasty. Expanding territory overseas is just what I want. I also like your recent immigration. I will be responsible for leading the army to conquer those territories, and you, my brother, will be responsible for occupying those territories firmly so that the Ming Dynasty will never lose them." Zhu Houzhao looked straight at Zhu Houxuan and said.

"I am willing to serve you wholeheartedly!" Zhu Houxuan said firmly.

"Hahaha!" Zhu Houzhao laughed and put his arm around Zhu Houxun's shoulders. "My dear brother, we are really a match made in heaven. One of us is good at literature and the other is good at martial arts. We work together very well!"

"Then we will always cooperate like this." Zhu Houxuan also said with a smile. After coming out of the Leopard Room, Zhu Houxuan fell into thought in the carriage. Zhu Houzhao's statement today was really beyond his expectations, but it was good this way, saving him from wasting more words.
Immigration was a policy he always adhered to and an important part of his industrial revolution plan.

Tenant farmers and ordinary self-employed farmers have little purchasing power, and they have to spend all their energy just to survive every year.

Land annexation in the inland areas of the Ming Dynasty has become increasingly severe. Immigration can not only reduce the pressure on the inland areas of the Ming Dynasty, but also create a group of rich farmers with consumption power.

The heartland of the Ming Dynasty is densely populated, with serious contradictions between people and land. There are too many people and too little land, so the only way to increase grain production is to cultivate intensively. However, if you immigrate overseas or to a border town, it will be different.
Going to Southeast Asia, one can take advantage of the climate and harvest three crops a year; going west to Hetao is also a place suitable for farming; going through Guandong and Liaodong has the advantage of fertile black soil and good natural conditions.

The most important thing is that these places have a lot of land and a small population, and one family can be allocated hundreds of acres of land to cultivate.

A family in the interior of the Ming Dynasty could only cultivate 60 mu of land, and if they cultivated it carefully, they could only harvest dan of grain in one season, and dan of grain in two seasons a year. They would have to keep the grain and seeds for themselves, pay taxes and rent, and finally have no agricultural surplus. They would have to do odd jobs to supplement their family income during the slack season, so they had no consumption capacity at all.
The same family can also plant two crops a year in Hetao and Liaodong, cultivating 200 acres of land. It is naturally impossible to cultivate such a large amount of land intensively, and they can only use a more extensive method to cultivate, so the harvest will definitely be lower. If the harvest of one acre per season is one stone of grain, then stones of grain can be harvested in two seasons a year. In this way, the agricultural surplus of this family will be much higher than cultivating acres of land in the inland.

After all, in this era without scientific breeding technology and large-scale production of chemical fertilizers, according to the marginal diminishing effect, when the harvest reaches a certain level, the improvement brought by intensive farming will become less and less.
Farmers with a large amount of agricultural surplus became rich farmers, and they had consumption power. They could digest all kinds of industrial products produced by the Royal Ming Group, and they could also supply more food to the Royal Ming Group.
This will also produce more food, allowing more people to leave agricultural production and join the industrial revolution.
From this perspective, immigration is actually to save more Ming farmers from the inefficient internal circulation in the inland areas and bring them to the border towns to increase food output by increasing the means of production.
Some people may think that in an era without mechanization, it was very difficult for a family to cultivate hundreds of acres of land. In fact, this is an empiricist mistake.

In fact, it is not that difficult. A family of four or five people can easily farm the land.

In the Spring and Autumn Period, Mencius said: "If you do not take away the time of a hundred acres of land, a family of several people will not be hungry!"

During the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, when a man came of age, he would be allocated 20 mu of permanent farmland and 80 mu of land for his family. It can be seen that it is completely possible for a family to cultivate hundreds of acres of land in an extensive way. In addition, when they arrived in Hetao and Liaodong, they also had the advantage of animal power.
The reality of the Ming Dynasty is that even though Zhu Houxun is making great progress in the industrial revolution in the north and Zhu Houzhao is winning victory after victory in the north, there are still constant refugees in various parts of the Ming Dynasty and people are constantly rising up.
(End of this chapter)