Cursed Mountains and Seas

Chapter 286 The Great Road and the Small Path, Wang Cheng Inspects the Land (Seeking Votes)

Without the support of the ruler, the legal process will be difficult to complete!
But in this southeastern half of the country, the powerful governor-general Hu Ruzhen, who was in charge of seven prefectures, also possessed the power to make a dream come true the next day.

His authority included overseeing military affairs in Wuzhou, Southern Zhili, Zhangzhou, and Minzhou in Guangdong and Guangxi.

This position of governor was specially created by the Dazhao court to deal with the unprecedentedly serious Japanese pirate raids. Its power was among the greatest in the entire history of Dazhao.

Within his jurisdiction, in order to ensure the logistical support for military operations, such as the procurement of provisions and the conscription of laborers, he had the authority to supervise and intervene in the administrative affairs of the seven states.

Even local officials such as governors and provincial treasurers needed to fully cooperate with him in military affairs.

Moreover, in order to solve the huge military expenditure, the imperial court granted Hu Ruzhen great financial flexibility, allowing him to use local fiscal revenue and even develop new sources of income.

If you want to accomplish something big, asking him for help is the perfect solution.

"Can it feed tens of millions more people? Is that really true?!"

Just as Wang Cheng had roughly explained to Hu Boqi the path to enlightenment he had mastered.

The other person's nonchalant air of a privileged young master vanished instantly, replaced by the imposing and domineering aura of someone wielding great power. His tangible official authority even silenced the sea breeze.

This had already attracted the attention of Hu Ruzhen herself, who even sent a wisp of her consciousness into her son's body.

Although Hu Ruzhen was a third-rank Confucian scholar of the Neo-Confucian school, he could still apply the principles of the Three Cardinal Guides and Five Constant Virtues (the ruler guides the subject, the father guides the son, and the husband guides the wife).

Possessing a child requires almost no effort.

It's no wonder he reacted so strongly.

With war and natural disasters causing population displacement and farmland abandonment, the supply of military provisions is of paramount importance for the defense of the southeastern coast.

Promoting a high-yield, drought-resistant crop that can be grown anywhere is of great strategic importance for stabilizing the rear and supporting the front lines. How could he not care about it?
Wang Cheng's attitude also became much more respectful at once:
"Your Excellency, it is indeed true."

However, these high-yield crops are all unique to the New World discovered by the followers of Lady Yan, and we currently only have corn seeds.

It is said that this high-yield grain has been continuously selected and domesticated by the natives of the New World over thousands of years, transforming from a wild grass into what it is today.

The best of them were sacrifices offered to the gods, and that land even had strange spirits like the "God of Skinning" and the "God of Corn."

More than half of China's land is suitable for growing drought-resistant and barren-fertile corn.

We can start by developing the hilly areas for trial planting; this will definitely increase grain production significantly.

What Wang Cheng didn't mention is that corn, along with sweet potatoes and potatoes, forms a "high-yield crop combination," which once supported an agricultural empire whose population surged from 1 million to 4 million.

The Qing dynasty didn't have the scientific breeding techniques we have now. What this thing looked like when it was introduced here is still the same as it was a hundred or two hundred years later.

Therefore, no additional cultivation is needed; they are already high-yield crops.

Hu Ruzhen took the whole, unthreshed corn cob handed to her by Wang Cheng and examined it carefully for a while, keenly realizing the significance it represented.

His gaze gradually filled with eagerness.

Although it is led by Lady Yan, the Dragon Girl, and the Heavenly Consort's lineage, she will definitely take the lion's share if this matter is accomplished. However, as long as the scale is large enough and the number of people benefited is large enough, it will be worthwhile.

That's enough for the Hu family to eat their fill.

Even his promotion from the third rank to the second rank is not entirely unthinkable.

Compared to the illusory and elusive pursuit of immortality, this can indeed be called the grand path of the divine officials!

Wang Cheng could tell from his expression that it was a success:

Why is it that a simple statement like "My glory will not be enjoyed alone, I will eat meat, and you will eat meat with me" can unite so many loyal followers?

"Profit is the strongest driving force." Having a high-ranking official help you is like an entrepreneur seeking investment for a promising project.

Although it requires profit sharing, it can leverage investors' funds, connections, and influence to achieve results and dominate the market in the shortest possible time.

They even have the capacity to organize manpower for variety improvement and agronomic exploration.

The official in charge of the land class [farmer] can transform into an agricultural scientist with a slight change of career path; the official in charge of the water class [saltman] can transform into a chemist.

【Yexianglang】is a fertilizer giant, essential for composting in the primitive stage. These and other methods can help continuously increase grain production until it reaches the level of the industrial age.

In the end, they'll all get a share of the benefits, so the more people involved in the promotion, the better.

at the same time.

Wang Cheng and Shen Yueye rode together in a carriage, escorted by a large number of elite guards from the Five Peaks Banner, through the countryside near Pinghu Port.

"Population size, composition, and public opinion; fixed building area and function; farmland area, location, ownership, and type."

Holding the [Treasure of the Prince of Jinghai] in their hands, a series of information related to their territory appeared before their eyes.

In Wang Cheng's eyes, the entire Donghai Kingdom's nine islands had become a digital model.

The fact that Wang Cheng and Shen Yueye could easily obtain accurate data that others would need to expend a lot of manpower and resources to acquire was far more reliable than Da Zhao's Fish Scale Atlas.

There is no need to worry about local powerful families hiding their land and population; the chain of land annexation can be broken from a technical standpoint.

Even the more advanced "four no's and two direct approaches"—no prior notice, no greetings, no reports, no accompaniment or reception, going directly to the grassroots and directly to the scene—seems somewhat redundant in the face of the "harmonious yin and yang" approach.

With just a few taps, one could emulate the "Taiko Kenchi" (a high-ranking official in Taiwan) by completing a nationwide land survey and population census. Of course, his personal involvement indicated that he had other matters to attend to.

Short, thin Japanese civilians knelt by the roadside, shouting in broken Zhao Mandarin under the leadership of the village headman from Wufeng Banner:
"Long live the Prince! Long live the Princess!"

Some of the smaller powerful families who hadn't sought refuge with the local magnates were filled with unease.

Yingzhou Island is about 73% mountainous, and arable plains, such as the Guandong Plain, are very limited, which restricts the scale and total output of agriculture.

Moreover, the tax rate of each daimyo is extremely high, usually between "50% public and 50% private" and "60% public and 40% private", meaning that 50% to 60% of the harvest must be paid to the public.

However, in certain periods or regions, it may even reach as high as "70% public and 30% private" (70%).

It is particularly worth mentioning that the tax rate is a fixed rate based on the standard yield of "Shi Gao" (石高), rather than a percentage of the total harvest.

In other words, if there is a bumper harvest, the actual proportion will be less than 40%; if there is a poor harvest, farmers will have to pay a fixed amount of grain, which will become an extremely heavy burden.

When Wang Cheng asked Lu Yunchen to help him calculate "how much money it would cost to keep a person in a state where they neither starve nor become rich, but can only work hard," he was not joking.

The rulers of different countries are all pretty much the same.

“We calculated how much grain the land would produce and how much the people would eat, and then set taxes according to the standard that the people would not starve and there would be no surplus.”

“If the people don’t starve, they won’t rebel. If they don’t have enough money to save, they won’t be able to study, learn martial arts, or take up official positions in the religious order, and they won’t have the opportunity to rise through the social class.”

"The only option is to farm the land generation after generation to support the high-ranking officials and nobles, so that they can remain superior to others for generations."

Then, while picking his teeth, he told them, "You're not trying hard enough!"

In addition to inspecting the land and promoting high-yield crops, Wang Cheng also planned to take advantage of the low human rights of the colony and the absolute military power controlled by his own base on this island of Jiufan to launch a major operation.

"Someone, post the notice out there."

(End of this chapter)