Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 21: He is dressed in silk and satin, but he is not a silkworm farmer!
"Zhang Juzheng."

Zhu Houcong suddenly called out Zhang Juzheng's name.

Zhang Juzheng immediately responded: "I am here."

"Increase the military pay in Fujian and Zhejiang to open up seaborne merchants, and then replace rice with mulberry in the interior. Are what Lord Yan said all your ideas?" Zhu Houcong asked.

Zhang Juzheng replied solemnly, "Your Majesty, it is my opinion to increase the military pay and reopen the sea route, but it is not my opinion to change rice to mulberry."

now.

Only then did he understand why Yan Song started his memorial to the emperor with his name.

This is not to build momentum for him, nor to make him famous, but to prepare a big pot for him.

Yan Song's so-called increase in military pay to fight against the Japanese pirates and increase in profits for the country was nothing more than a prelude to replacing rice with mulberry.

To put it more clearly, the replacement of rice with mulberry is just another way of saying taking the opportunity to annex Zhejiang agricultural land.

If we really convert half of Zhejiang's grain fields into mulberry fields, I'm afraid all of this land will fall into the pockets of the big families in the southeast.

The area of ​​Jiangsu and Zhejiang originally consisted of "seven mountains, two rivers and one piece of farmland". As the big families in the southeast have been "intensively cultivating" in Jiangsu and Zhejiang for hundreds of years, it is estimated that only half of the land actually belongs to Zhejiang farmers.

If they changed rice crops to mulberry trees as Yan Song suggested, he could guarantee that the people of Zhejiang would no longer have an inch of land to cultivate.

What will happen if the people have no land?
Once the southeast is in chaos, whose head will the court use to appease the people's anger?
Is it Yan Song's head? Or Xu Jie's head?

neither!
It will only be Zhang Juzheng's head.

Because it was he who proposed the resistance against the Japanese invaders and the opening of the sea, replacing rice with mulberry trees was just a derivative product, and he was naturally responsible for the unrest that the product caused.

Zhang Juzheng had no good feelings towards Yan Song, nor did he have any misunderstanding of him. He knew that Yan Song was an out-and-out treacherous prime minister who would do anything for his own personal gain.

But Zhang Juzheng was completely disappointed with Xu Jie. For his own selfish interests, Xu Jie easily sacrificed his favorite student.

Knowing that replacing rice with mulberry trees was a dangerous pit, he said nothing in front of the emperor and watched him jump into the fire pit. He was even one of the people who pushed him into the fire pit.

The master and the apprentice are like father and son. Although Old Master Zhang is not in the capital, Zhang Juzheng always treats Xu Jie as his own father.

But it is just as the "Three Bonds and Five Constant Virtues" said: If the king is not upright, the ministers will defect to another country; if the father is not kind, the sons will flee to another place.

Zhang Juzheng denied without hesitation that he had replaced rice with mulberry, which made Xu Jie look a little unnatural, but more angry.

A disciple disobeying his master in front of the emperor was something that had never happened in the nearly two hundred years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Houcong showed an admiring look: "Why not change rice to mulberry?"

"Your Majesty, it will take time to suppress the Japanese pirates. Jiangsu and Zhejiang are where the Japanese pirates cause trouble. If we promote the policy of replacing rice with mulberry, some unscrupulous businessmen will buy and sell the people's land on a large scale. Within a few months, chaos will break out in the southeast." Zhang Juzheng was thinking of Xu Jie after all, so he only mentioned the unscrupulous businessmen and did not mention the corrupt officials or the wealthy families.

It was Yan Shifan who first suggested changing rice crops to mulberry trees to his father Yan Song.

Yan Shifan knew it was time to take action, and said, "In our Ming Dynasty, all merchants are honest and diligent in their business, and they are all merchants with conscience. How can there be any dishonest merchants?"

This sentence.

He has no shame at all.

Yan Shifan did not allow Zhang Juzheng to reply, and continued, "The yield of one acre of mulberry field is more than 50% higher than that of one acre of farmland. I just don't understand. This method of enriching the country and the people was proposed by you, Zhang Shentong. Why do you deny it when it comes to benefiting the people? What do you want to do?" Yan Shifan was of the same age as Gao Gong, but ten years younger than Xu Jie. According to the rules of officialdom, when addressing Zhang Juzheng, he should use his courtesy name, but he called out the name of Zhang Juzheng's childhood prodigy, just like an elder calling a younger one.

In Yan Shifan's mind, Xu Jie served his father Yan Song as a son, so he and Xu Jie were of the same generation, and Zhang Juzheng was the younger generation.

It is only natural to scold the younger generation.

Zhang Juzheng couldn't help but glance at Xu Jie after hearing such harsh words. Seeing that he was still calm, he couldn't help but get a little angry. "It doesn't matter what I want to do. What matters is what the young cabinet minister wants to do?
I want to know, if the converted mulberry fields eventually fall into the hands of officials and businessmen in Zhejiang, and the process of buying silk is omitted from planting mulberry trees and raising silkworms to weaving silk, how much money can they make?

I want to know what the 15 million people in Zhejiang will eat after they switch from rice to mulberry trees.

Since the idea of ​​replacing rice with mulberry trees was proposed before the emperor, it meant that a detailed plan had been made in advance.

From the imperial court to Zhejiang, everyone from top to bottom is connected to the Yan family and their sons. Now with Xu Jie's cooperation, if the plot succeeds, the people of Zhejiang will probably not be able to survive.

"If the rice-to-mulberry policy is successful, it will be a national policy. Who among the officials and businessmen in the world would dare to profit from it?"

Yan Shifan answered Zhang Juzheng's question with a rhetorical question. As long as Zhang Juzheng did not want to make enemies with all the officials in the two capitals and thirteen provinces, this rhetorical question could not be answered.

Because officials all profit from national policies.

The word "official" has two mouths. If these two mouths are not satisfied first, no national policy can be successful.

Seeing Zhang Juzheng silent, Yan Shifan was a little proud and continued: "My Ming Dynasty does not only produce grain in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but also changes rice to mulberry and allocates grain from other provinces."

Yan Song was silent, Xu Jie was silent, and Zhang Juzheng was also silent.

"Young Minister, the grain transferred from other provinces must be more expensive than the grain produced in this province. How can the people of Zhejiang be willing to accept this?" Gao Gong continued.

"I still say that the silk produced by each acre of mulberry field is higher than the grain yield of each acre of farmland. Which citizen doesn't want to earn more money? Which citizen doesn't want to live a better life? Which citizen is unwilling to switch to planting mulberry fields?" Yan Shifan immediately retorted.

"According to what the young minister said, under the national policy, the people of Zhejiang will definitely be able to buy food after selling their silk?"

"Of course!"

Yan Shifan smiled.

Gao Gong also laughed, his laugh was so sad, and he said: "Young Lord, you are living a life of luxury, you are not interested in worldly matters, but those common people are different.

With grain fields in hand, no matter it is a good year or a bad year, as long as there is no foreign debt, at least you will not starve to death.

If we change the business, even though, as you said, our income will increase in the future, what about now?

The young cabinet minister said in front of the emperor that grain would be allocated from other provinces to ensure that the people of Zhejiang have food to eat. Zhejiang officials can also convey this to the people of Zhejiang, but young cabinet minister, do you think the people of Zhejiang will believe your words?

If any of the ancestors of the people of Zhejiang had believed what you said, young minister, Zhejiang would be uninhabited for hundreds of miles today.

If any of our ancestors had believed what you said, young minister, our family's incense would not have been passed down to my generation.

During the reign of Emperor Taizu Gao, half of Henan's farmland was converted into cotton fields, totaling 18 million mu of cotton fields. However, there was not a grain of food for the Henan people to eat, and not a piece of cotton for the Henan people to wear.

That year, people south of the Yellow River exchanged their children for food. "

(End of this chapter)