Dominate the Country

The atmosphere in the palace was very depressing.

Five years ago, when Linqing in Qi and Lu, Guguan in Jizhou, Gaoyao in Guangdong, and Lingling in the south were hit by floods; the tide in Zhangzhou, Fujian, entered the city, and the water in the city was more than ten feet deep. Many government offices, warehouses, prisons, and houses of soldiers and civilians collapsed, drowning more than 300 people and more than 50,000 houses. Since then, there has been no natural disaster for several years.

God has been kind, and the weather has been good every year.

But this spring, drought broke out again in the southeastern part of the Central Plains and the northern part of Anhui Province.

Although the Chinese people in this year have more or less surplus food at home. The disaster in one season will not be as severe as in the Qing Dynasty, when millions of people would become refugees and be separated and displaced. However, the Huanghuai Plain has suffered a severe drought, and wheat production is bound to be greatly reduced. Domestic grain prices, especially wheat flour prices, have risen accordingly.

The cabinet was extremely troubled. The Huanghuai Plain was the most densely populated area in China. Although the area was not large, the number of people affected by the disaster reached more than three million. However, as one of the centers of China's agriculture, the development of industry, commerce and trade here was far less than that of Jiangnan, Fujian and Guangdong. The local industry and commerce simply could not absorb so many laborers.

As the main agricultural production area, ordinary farmers on the Huanghuai Plain now had no problem eating enough, or even eating better. They might have some extra money at home and stored a lot of food, but now food was worthless, so it was hard to say how wealthy the people here were.

It was impossible for every household to have someone go to the army or work, and not go out and just dig for food in the land. Even if the court reduced taxes, how much money would the people have left after eating and drinking?

The impact of this drought was still very large.

The prefectures and counties were trying their best to appease the people, mobilize materials to provide relief to the victims, and organize drought relief work, but the cabinet was most afraid that the drought at this time would cause a locust plague.

Every spring, until the Mid-Autumn Festival, this is the breeding season of East Asian migratory locusts. 'Locusts appear when drought is extreme' is no joke.

Therefore, the drought in the Huanghuai Plain is taken very seriously by the cabinet.

This is also because the court is too controlling now. I wish there was not a single beggar in the city.

If it were the Qing Dynasty, the central and local governments would not have to be under such great pressure. They would exempt the local taxes that could not be collected, let the victims go to other places to make a living, provide some porridge in places with conditions, and pay attention to not letting refugees gather to make trouble. This is the greatest 'good policy' of the court. Anyway, the blame is on God. As long as they don't want to rebel, no one dares to put this disaster on the emperor's misconduct. This is a natural disaster.

But now in the Chen and Han dynasties, the government has a deep control over the local areas, so naturally they have to bear the blame to the end.

There is no reason. When the weather is good, the court controls the countryside, but when the famine comes, the countryside is no longer controlled by the court.

Chen Ming didn't waste any words, and turned to his chief of staff and asked, "What plans has the cabinet reported?"

He no longer needs to make suggestions on state affairs. The cabinet will prepare various plans and wait for him to decide. If Chen Ming is too lazy to do this, the cabinet can make a decision immediately, as long as Chen Ming delegates power first.

For the disaster in the Huanghuai Plain, the cabinet reported a total of five plans. The first three plans are very old-fashioned. The first is the old method, which is to use work instead of relief. Local governments will build small water conservancy projects and county roads, and the central government will build large projects. All the people who have been affected by the disaster and have no farm work will be included in the temporary infrastructure system. Although this plan is expensive and requires consultations between local governments, the central government and the beneficiaries of the project, it is also very beneficial to the country.

It's just that the country has recently expanded its business. In addition to America, there is also Egypt. Napoleon has retreated to Egypt from Syria. The eastern section of the Suez Canal has begun construction. Although China's fiscal revenue is high, the budget is also tight.

The re-equipment of the National Defense Army's million-strong army has not yet been fully completed.

The second plan is immigration!

In today's China, whether in America or South Mingzhou, the vast land has everything except people. It is simply the most ideal place for "flood discharge". Transferring the victims who have lost their livelihoods to the outside world is both disaster relief and development.

But this plan also requires money.

The Huanghuai Plain is one of the most densely populated areas in China. There are three million people affected by the disaster in a small place. How many people should be selected from them to immigrate? The local government is reluctant.

Today's China rarely conducts large-scale immigration. I heard that the next cabinet will remove the sign of the Immigration Bureau and turn it into an Exit and Entry Administration. Responsible for foreigners entering and leaving China, immigration, studying abroad, visas, etc.

This is ultimately because the court wants to maintain the comprehensive strength of the local area.

The third plan is actually a variation of the first plan. The court supports new industries in the disaster-stricken areas, transforms disaster victims into workers, and allows them to eat without relying on the fields. This method needs to be combined with the actual situation, which requires a lot of effort and costs a lot. We also have to worry about whether the newly established factory industry can be stabilized after leaving the government's support. The risks are unpredictable.

The fourth plan is to link the disaster relief work in the Huanghuai area with the excavation project of the Suez Canal in Egypt. The refugees here are directly taken to Egypt to work as laborers for a year.

Spicy egg.

The construction of the Suez Canal has been underway for several months, but because of the invasion of the French, the Ottoman Empire has not done any of the things it promised before. Whether it is manpower or material!

The Suez Canal is very close to the Nile Delta, and even closer to the Mansoura Fortress. Napoleon would naturally not really tear his face with China and send troops to raid here, but Iram and Ottoman would not be able to organize manpower to "reinforce" the canal project before completely dealing with Napoleon. The problem now is that in order to ensure progress, Chen Han must send more employees there this year.

Although Napoleon's army is not large, it is highly motivated and has strong field combat capabilities. The Ottoman Empire organized troops in the Mediterranean region along the western part of the Arabian Peninsula and fought two major battles with Napoleon, but lost both battles. Even though the Ottoman army in the second battle was more than twice the number of Napoleon's army, it still ended up being defeated.

The war in Egypt is still more troublesome.

The last plan is to gather the above four strategies, adapt to local conditions, establish industries, build projects, export labor, and add immigration to the outside world. It is to combine all four plans and use whatever plan is suitable there. This plan may not take so much money, but it requires a huge amount of manpower from the local and central governments to plan, manage and supervise its implementation.

Chen Ming dislikes "disaster rescue" the most. This thing happened suddenly, and it is too troublesome to collect data. The money spent is not a big deal, but what about the manpower and energy spent? Sometimes Chen Ming wants to set up a special emergency department for disaster rescue, or include post-disaster reconstruction and aftermath work in it.

The statisticians of various central departments are all new-age elites in Chen Han's officialdom.

"I think that the first four strategies, if implemented alone, have only shortcomings, but if implemented in parallel, the results are the greatest and the cost is the least. We can still expect great benefits in the future. The only concern is that it will affect the central government too much."

From the bottom of his heart, Chen Ming prefers the fifth plan. But if the fifth plan is to be implemented, the cabinet will be busy. The latter does not involve military affairs much, but it will be troublesome for the subordinate departments.

And it is trouble outside the work plan.

Chen Han's fiscal expenditure can be budgeted, and the work for the whole year can be planned, but no one can do anything when encountering such unplanned disasters.

More importantly, spring drought is not necessarily a simple natural disaster. It is often followed by summer floods or locust plagues. It can be predicted that there will be no peace in the Huanghuai Plain in the 25th year of Chengtian.

Of course, if God wants to abuse Huanghuai, then putting aside morality, from a realistic perspective, this natural disaster, and other disasters that will most likely follow, will bring Chen Han a great wealth, that is, millions of "active population".

If these people are invested in industrial production, it will definitely have a great stimulating effect on society. And even if only a small number of them can be invested in the industrial tide in the end, it is precious.

Of course, America, Southeast Asia, South Mingzhou and other places will definitely keep a close eye on these people. In recent years, immigration projects have become increasingly weak, and many fertile lands overseas have no one to cultivate.

Even some immigrants in Luzon and Malaysia have lost their agricultural status.

The land tax in these new lands is very low. Farming can provide a stable living, but it cannot bring wealth. In those places, if you want to make more money, there is almost only one way to mine. Who made the grain price stable again?

Now in Southeast Asia, the final way to make money is not to farm, but to mine in the mines, which can make more money than logging.

To a certain extent, slavery has gradually emerged in Luzon and Annan. In order to obtain cheap labor, some Chinese people deceived or even captured natives as coolies and transported them to mines to do low-skilled labor such as mining and carrying sand. When they died, they were thrown into the mines! It is much more convenient to use than Chinese, Japanese, Siamese, etc.

When three million people were affected by the disaster, the first thing Emperor Chen thought of was not the disaster victims causing trouble, but that it would take up too much of his energy to deal with the "disaster". This is like when something happens, it is not about whether it can be settled or not, not about how much money to pay, but about worrying and suffering. This is definitely rich and powerful!

But Chen Han now has such capital.

Thirty years of development, taking last year's data as an example, Chen Han has developed shipping for decades. As of the 24th year of Chengtian, Chen Han has registered no less than 500,000 seafarers, and has 7,000 large, medium and small sea vessels, with a total capacity of more than 3 million tons.

The local population level is still at the level of 200 million, but the urban population is no less than 40 million. The population of Nanjing, Shanghai and Guangzhou is no less than one million, but two million. The population of Yanjing and Wuhan also exceeds one million. The rest, such as the provincial capitals and cities such as Lushan, Yangzhou, Tianjin and Yantai, have a population of more than 500,000.

The figures that best reflect that Chen Han has stepped into the modern industrial society are steel and coal production.

Chen Han's annual steel production has approached 1 million tons, four times that of the United Kingdom. Coal production is also around 40 million tons, compared with the British coal production of 12 million tons, it can be said to be absolutely surpassed.

People in later generations often say that the national strength of the 19th century depends on steel and coal, which is by no means a simple number. And as the influence of ships and trains in China increases, the output of coal will be even higher.

The chassis of carriages, the iron frames of cranes, guns, swords, and many machines represented by steam engines, even the iron used in shipbuilding, and the daily needs of ordinary people, a country's demand for steel is everywhere. This alone can show the huge gap between Chen Han and European countries in national strength.

The annual fiscal revenue is just a very direct manifestation.

Chen Ming decided to return to Nanjing. After all, it is not as convenient to handle affairs in Hangzhou. He did not come to Hangzhou with a small court. At most, he was accompanied by the attendants and the staff of various departments.

He originally came out to take a breath, but he did not expect that God would be so unkind. ,

When thinking of returning to Nanjing, Chen Ming thought of Chen Ding and his sons. This time, Mexico was taken down. As soon as possible, those sons who are not interested in the throne should be enfeoffed early.