The most reckless man in the Ming Dynasty

America is a must-visit.

Tang Hao accidentally came to the Ming Dynasty and saw with his own eyes the hardships and hardships of the people at the bottom, so he had to do something for them.

He asked himself that he was not a holy lady, but if he didn't even have a little compassion and kindness, how was he any different from an animal?

Historically, the grain output of the Ming Dynasty was appallingly low.

A young and strong man in the north can get more than 200 kilograms of wheat from one acre of land. Therefore, if a family wants to maintain food and clothing, if they do not cultivate 30 to 50 acres of land, it will be difficult for the several members of the family. Satisfied.

The rice yield in the south is higher, but the higher yield is limited, only four to five hundred kilograms. A family without ten acres of paddy fields would not be able to survive even if they thought about it.

How could such an outrageously low output, and with the advent of the Little Ice Age, feed the tens of millions of people in the Ming Dynasty? As a result, refugees began to appear. As the number of refugees increased, under internal and external troubles, this huge The empire will eventually collapse.

It is particularly worth mentioning that it was not until the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty that early-maturing rice cultivation truly began to be widely promoted in China. This was called an agricultural revolution. According to the views of some later scholars, this was one of the most amazing changes in the world. .

Early-maturing rice was first introduced to Fujian from Champa during the Zhenzong period of the Northern Song Dynasty, but it was not widely cultivated. It was not until the middle and late Ming Dynasty that it was widely planted in the south. In particular, it contributed to the transformation of Huguang area into the most important grain exporting area, forming the "Huguang ripe, The pattern of "the world is full".

Rice has since become the main food for people in the Ming Dynasty. According to the estimate of Ming Dynasty scientist Song Yingxing, rice accounted for 70% of the total.

After the popularization of early-maturing rice, in the south of the Ming Dynasty, two crops a year became the most common situation (it is rare to see it not), and some places even had three crops a year, which greatly increased grain production.

Tang Hao had already ordered people to look for this thing in Zhancheng. If he couldn't find it, he destroyed Zhancheng. There was nothing to say.

Promote the planting of early-maturing rice in advance and maximize the grain output of the Ming Dynasty. I don’t know how many lives can be saved.

At least, Tang Hao didn't want to hear about the tragedy of people changing their sons and eating each other in his lifetime!

Otherwise, his conscience will be troubled!

But none of these can completely solve the problem of food shortage in the Ming Dynasty.

Unless we can reach the Americas and bring back high-yield food crops such as potatoes, corn, peanuts, and sweet potatoes, this is the most important thing.

In fact, it is theoretically possible to cross the Pacific Ocean and follow the North Pacific Warm Current to reach the Americas, but the risk is very high!

In this vast sea, the fleet would have to suffer for more than half a year or even longer before it could find land supplies!

Moreover, the Ming Dynasty Navy has never traveled this route, and has no idea about the specific route and what difficulties it will encounter on this route, such as hurricanes, oceans, rocks, etc. It can be said that they don’t know anything. It may lead to the annihilation of the entire fleet!

Although, crossing the Pacific is indeed a feasible option.

Later archaeologists discovered ancient human remains in Guam, Hawaii and other places that were very consistent with the Dawenkou residents of the Neolithic Age, and traces of the Dawenkou people's tooth extraction custom were retained on the skulls, which shows that the customs of Dawenkou people existed thousands of years ago. Some ancestors spread across the ocean to these areas.

When talking about technical issues, the first is the ocean navigation capability of seagoing ships.

Traditional Chinese sea-going ships have always been incapable of ocean navigation. This is actually just a stereotype.

Starting from the Tang Dynasty, Chinese ships have been able to leave the coast and conduct long-distance ocean voyages. For example, "Guangzhou Tonghaiyi Dao" written by Jia Dan in the Tang Dynasty recorded a route from Guangzhou to West Asia and East Africa via the Southern Ocean and the Indian Ocean. Among them, it was an ocean voyage across the Indian Ocean from Jialan Island (today's Nicobar Islands) to the Lion Country (today's Sri Lanka) westward for more than ten days.

Then in the Song Dynasty, the ability of ocean navigation further developed, and most of the routes to the south and west were direct ocean routes. For example, "Lingwai Daida" records that "Guangbo came to Lanli (today's Banda Aceh) for the winter on the 40th day." Others include Lanli. It takes thirty days to arrive at Gu Lin (into Malabar, India), and sixty days from Gu Lin to Dashi, both of which are direct ocean routes.

The current Ming Dynasty is at the peak of its long-distance voyage fleet. Both its size and routes are sufficient to meet the needs of transoceanic voyages.

The second is navigation technology. Navigation technology in the Age of Discovery was not as complicated as later. Crossing the ocean mainly relied on equal latitude navigation. The star-finding technique that the Ming Dynasty had mastered was a simple method of measuring latitude.

Therefore, when crossing the Pacific Ocean, you only need to find the latitude of the Kuroshio Current and leave the rest to the ocean currents and westerly belts. In fact, even if you don't know how to measure latitude, as long as you can find the westerly belt to the west of Japan, it is not difficult to cross the Pacific.

It is indeed feasible to cross the Pacific Ocean from Japan to America.

But the difficulties and obstacles that need to be experienced cannot be explained clearly in one or two sentences!

There is no route, no chart, no idea of ​​the conditions along the way, let alone where the magical continent is. No matter how big or small the details are, the entire fleet may be destroyed, causing everyone to be buried in the belly of the fish!

This is where the real danger lies!

But this is what Tang Hao must do next!

Of course, before he goes out to sea to explore the magical continent, the hidden dangers within Ming Dynasty must be resolved first.

Tang Hao looked at Anguo.

"War is not limited to the use of force."

"The war of money and food, the war of resources, is the best strategy."

"It's just like the five expeditions to the north of the desert by Emperor Taizong Wen, but the results were few."

After hearing this, all the generals nodded in silence.

The first time was in the eighth year of Yongle, when the Ming army defeated 50,000 Mongolian cavalry in the battle of Feiyun Mountain, and the Tatars of the Mongolian headquarters paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty; the second time was in the twelfth year of Yongle, when the Ming army defeated the Wala leader Mahamu who was defending the dangerous place in Hulanhushiwen, and chased him to the Tula River. Mahamu fled, Wala was defeated, and Zhu Di announced his victory to the world.

The first two northern expeditions were of great significance. They crippled the Tatar tribe and the Wala tribe, consolidated the border defense of the Ming Dynasty, and cracked down on the remaining Mongolian forces. They were of great positive significance for stabilizing the situation on the northern border.

But the next three times were purely useless.

The third time was in the 20th year of Yongle, when Zhu Di led his army from Beijing to personally attack the Mongolian Arutai. The Ming army marched northeastward through Kaiping and found a large amount of baggage of Arutai in Kuoluanhai North Road. They sent troops to burn it and collect its livestock before returning.

The fourth time was in the 21st year of Yongle, when Zhu Di personally attacked Arutai again. Hearing that Arutai was defeated by Wala, the army stayed there and did not advance.

The fifth time was in the 22nd year of Yongle, when the Tatars invaded the border again, and Zhu Di organized the fifth Northern Expedition.

What was the result?

All the food was sent to the front line.

The civilians were all drawn to transport food and baggage.

All the young and strong were pulled to the battlefield to fight.

Again and again, year after year!

As a result, the people of the world naturally complained and resentment arose everywhere. It can be said that the bitter war has lasted for a long time!

Therefore, Zhu Di's "ambition and militarism" are not groundless, especially the five northern expeditions have put the country into a state of collapse, and domestic conflicts have reached the brink of an outbreak.

And the reason why Emperor Renzong and Emperor Xuanzong stopped the war and focused on shrinking the front line and developing people's livelihood is also because of this reason.

With the current social productivity of the Ming Dynasty, it really can't withstand the tossing of three generations of heroes!

"War is just a continuation of politics!"

"War is not the purpose, we can't fight for the sake of fighting!"

"If there is a better way, wouldn't it be better to defeat the enemy without fighting?"