First Prince of Ming Dynasty

  Chapter 128 and 29 Relocation Matters (Exemption)

   After Zhu Biao took a deep breath, he put down the vital skills of Qimin. It is useless to think so much now. After all, Daming has not even recovered the minimum population and infrastructure.

The matter of the imperial examination cannot be rushed for a while, and there will be no problems if you think about it. Zhu Biao simply focused on the matter of relocation. The relocation cannot be a village-by-village migration, otherwise it would still be demolished. Does the east wall make up for the west wall?

  A village takes 70 households out of every 100 households, giving priority to those who are poor. In fact, in addition to the difficulty of leaving their homeland, it is actually good for those poor people who are poor in the local area to relocate. The subsidies and policies of the court are also very good.

Zhu Biao showed a map. This time the immigrants are going to Fengyang, Anhui, which is Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown. It is estimated that more than 200,000 people will be relocated. Of course, this is only the first batch. It is estimated that hundreds of people will be relocated in the future. million people.

  Since the Yellow River flooded at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, it has not been opened for 20 consecutive years. The Yuan court did not control it due to internal and external troubles. As a result, a large area of ​​land in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River was reduced to swamps.

  Shanxi's current population is probably more than 20 million according to Xu Da's report, while the rest of Ming Dynasty may not add up to 10 million.

  So it is very important to do a good job of relocating people for the first time, so that it can also give a look to the follow-up relocation work.

  The migration to Fengyang is also to replenish the population nearby. After all, Fengyang is very close to Nanjing and it is the hometown of the emperor, so it is natural to give priority to replenishing.

  Zhu Biao looked through the records of the migration of people in previous dynasties. Unfortunately, most of them were small-scale migrations. Thousands of soldiers drove the people away like sheep, and those who fell behind went up and gave them a few whips.

  Most of the rest are natural disasters. Even if there is no imperial organization, the people can only be forced to relocate, just like the people from all over the Central Plains voluntarily ran to Shanxi because of the famine and war.

  First of all, we have to tell them the benefits and lure them with benefits. Most of the people who fled to Shanxi are not doing well, and Shanxi is not their hometown, so it is relatively easy for them to migrate.

  Tell them all along the way that the rations of all of them are provided by the imperial court. When they arrive at the place, a man will be divided into ten acres of land. If he is willing to open up ten acres of land, he will be allowed to keep eight acres for himself.

  When you go to a place to encourage childbearing, as long as you have more children, regardless of gender, the court will reward you.

  The 50,000 cattle and sheep brought by Zhu Biao from the grasslands have already been placed in Fengyang, and the imperial court is also using tea and salt to trade with the Mongolian tribes. Cattle, sheep and horses are good things.

Of course, forced relocation is unavoidable in the end, but it can’t be like herding sheep. In these days, everyone is extremely precious. Zhu Biao plans to relocate the young and strong first, let them go fast after they are full, and follow them when they get to the place. The army built houses in a unified manner, farmed fields to burn carbon, and did a good job in infrastructure construction.

  The old and young in the back can slow down. Anyway, they will not be of much use there. If they rush to Fengyang, they will get down and have to arrange people to take care of them. The loss outweighs the gain.

  Zhu Biao also plans to recruit orphans. Although the people in Shanxi are living a good life, compared with places that have experienced wars and turmoil, there are many orphans there.

   Compared with adults, these orphans are undoubtedly more liked by Zhu Biao. They only need to be fed, and then they can be raised well no matter what they are used for.

   Not only Zhu Biao needs it, but Zhu Yuanzhang’s pro-military Duwei Mansion also needs it. When it is reorganized into Jinyiwei in the future, it will need a lot of manpower.

   At that time, after Zhu Biao gathers, he will be trained in a unified manner and distributed according to his talents. Compared with the expansion of special agents, Zhu Biao now hopes to cultivate a group of talents with talents in science and engineering and shipbuilding.

According to current estimates, when the people migrate to Fengyang, it will be autumn, and the next biggest problem is that winter is coming. Only after this first cold winter can the people who migrated be considered to have settled down. Start spring plowing, summer cultivation, autumn harvesting and winter storage.

   In this way, after two or three years of imperial tax exemption policy, the people of Fengyang began to farm and raise their children with peace of mind.

  But although Fengyang is said to be in the south, it is still very cold in winter, and the winter at this time is much colder than in later generations. Although the coldness in the south is far less than that in the north, if there is not enough heating, people will freeze to death at night.

  In later generations, no matter where they are, even if their families are poor, they will have at least a cotton jacket and a thick quilt. But now it is very difficult to get these, such as cotton, you must know that the origin of cotton is India and Arabia.

  Before cotton was introduced to China, China only had kapok for filling pillows and mattresses, but no cotton for weaving. Before the Song Dynasty, China only had the word "cotton" next to silk, but not the word "cotton" next to wood.

Zhu Biao still remembers that he saw their quilts when he went to Fengyang to worship his ancestors. Most of them were filled with catkins and kapok. The thermal effect can be imagined, but there is no way but to cover a few more layers. Of course, you can’t buy them. With so much cloth, it can only be covered with linen.

The common people huddle together for one night. If the conditions are better, they can use some animal feathers such as chicken feathers, goose feathers, and duck feathers to make quilts and clothes to keep warm. These things are very pungent and smelly. It's uncomfortable, but there's nothing you can do about it.

  Rich households are meant to be able to build a mattress made of some kind of skin, such as dog skin or something. Generally, the hunters in the mountains use the fur of those wild animals. If it is a peaceful season, the common people can exchange food with the hunters for fur.

Although cotton has been introduced, how can the common people dare to grow cotton as a cash crop? Famines and wars have been raging for years. If you can grow a grain of grain, you may survive. Who would waste the land to grow cotton, and where can you sell cotton? go out.

At this point, Zhu Biao is going to praise his father. Two years ago, Zhu Yuanzhang ordered that the cultivated land near Nanjing City must grow some cotton. Maybe Lao Zhu has also suffered from winter. Now the Ministry of Households has arranged for people to start making quilts Yes, it will be shipped directly to Fengyang at that time.

  With the clothes and quilts of the house, the only thing left is the heating facilities. In fact, kangs have appeared in the north, but this is generally not used in the south. The main reason is the lack of fuel. Wood cannot be burned, so carbon must be used.

  Coal is actually available now, and in Shanxi, Zhu Biao has read the "Shui Jing Zhu" written by Li Daoyuan, which records the spontaneous combustion of coal seams and the development and utilization of coal in Datong, Shanxi.

  Coal was widely used in Datong area in Song Dynasty. During the Liao, Jin, and Yuan Dynasties, the coal mining industry in Datong area was well developed, and the iron smelting industry also lasted for a long time.

  …………

  (end of this chapter)