After the Lantern Festival in the 11th year of Chongzhen, officials across the Ming Dynasty began to resume their daily work.

This year’s New Year is really peaceful, unlike last year, when thieves attacked Anqing on the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, causing all officials in South Zhili to end their holidays in a hurry and put themselves into a state of nervous preparation for war and defense.

After the Tianwu Army's attack, there was no more rogue bandits in South Zhili, and even the bandits who had been kings in the mountains all year round were wiped out.

In addition, Zhu Cixi established a Jinyiwei patrol team to inspect and supervise officials in various places, and conducted thorough house raids on officials who collected excessive taxes and dared to embezzle money from the palace. Southern Zhili, especially the Seven Prefectures where Zhu Cixi practiced farming, truly made the people live and work in peace and contentment.

One person starved to death.

Not only were there no people dying of starvation, there were almost no refugees or beggars left. Those beggars and refugees had long been registered as households by the government and taken to reclaim wasteland. Some of the refugees were taken into almshouses by the government as soon as they arrived in Fengyang Prefecture.

, they were provided with food first and allowed to rest for two days. During this period, they were registered and registered. After two days, they were sent to work in land reclamation, or they were arranged to work in iron factories and other mining plants.

The problem of food and clothing can still be solved by providing food and accommodation for reclaiming the wasteland. If someone is unwilling to reclaim the land and wants to run away after two days of food, he will be put in jail and starved for two days first.

Zhu Cixiang's meaning is very clear. Ming Dynasty does not need such people who want to survive, work by themselves, open their mouths and wait for food to be eaten!

Although the situation in Fengyang Prefecture and other places is very good, the drought in various parts of the Ming Dynasty has become more and more serious. Since June last year, it has not rained in the capital of the Ming Dynasty, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, and Shaanxi. After the severe drought, the sky was full of rain.

The migratory locusts appeared out of the sky, and wherever they passed, the fields were completely green.

In Henan, which borders Fengyang Prefecture, the disaster is even worse. Coupled with the corruption of local officials and the exploitation and oppression of gentry and landlords, the price of rice has skyrocketed. The people are miserable and can only peel bark and sawdust and mix it with the chaff to eat.

Down.

What's more, by feeding on the Guanyin soil, the earth became red for thousands of miles, and people died of hunger everywhere. Many people were ready to take action, just waiting for someone to take the lead in rebellion.

South Zhili is also affected by drought and locust plague. Fortunately, Fengyang Prefecture and other places have dug canals and used water trucks for irrigation on a large scale. The drought has little impact. Although the locust plague is less, it has also caused considerable damage to the villagers.

loss.

Yang Tinglin put forward the suggestion of letting people catch locusts, which surprised everyone. A supervisor from the Nanjing Imperial College immediately objected, saying that locusts are heavenly insects, representing God's punishment on the human world, and eating them is disrespectful to God!

Regarding this supervisor of the Nanjing Imperial College, Zhu Cixiang directly told him to get out and issued an edict that he would never be hired, thus ending his official career.

When encountering natural disasters, they just say it is God’s will and do nothing. This kind of person acts as an official? I don’t know how many people have been wronged by becoming an official. This kind of person is either stupid in reading, or he is really stupid. He must not

use.

Zhu Cixiang agreed with Yang Tinglin's suggestion of eating locusts. Historical data records that Emperor Taizong Li Shimin took the lead in eating locusts in the second year of Zhenguan, which reduced the locust plague a lot.

Zhu Cixi ordered various places to catch locusts and sell them to the government, who then fried them to make dishes and distributed them to some common people to taste.

Seeing this, how could many people dare to eat it? Zhu Cixi had no choice but to have people use bamboo sticks to skewer a row of barbecued locusts. Then he held his nose and took the lead in eating a bunch of roasted locusts. Seeing this, the officials could only follow closely behind, grinning.

Eating locust vegetables.

Zhu Cixiang knew that locusts are rich in protein, and eating them occasionally is beneficial and harmless. It not only supplements nutrition, but can also treat tetanus, infantile convulsions, fever, asthma, bloating, cormorant plague, chilblains, tracheitis and prevent cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

Diseases, etc., but don’t eat too much.

Even the crown prince and officials ate it, so what did the people have to worry about? Many people began to follow suit.

Some businessmen even purchased locusts privately and resold them to restaurants for profit. The government not only ignored them, but also continued to encourage them. This further aroused the enthusiasm of people in various parts of South Zhili to capture locusts.

In addition to frying, stir-frying, and roasting, some restaurants also introduced pickled locusts... In this way, countless locusts were turned into delicious dishes, and the number of locusts in various parts of South Zhili decreased sharply until they disappeared.

In order to cope with the disaster, Zhu Cihong reduced the rent paid by villagers from two dou per mu to one dou per mu, and then divided the fields in Huizhou Prefecture and other places that were short of water resources and severely affected by the disaster and exempted them from taxes for three years to attract people.

The people went to reclaim wasteland.

By the way, Zhu Cihong transferred some prisoners who had their heads shaved and underwent transformation to cultivate wasteland.

After the beginning of spring, Zhu Cixiang personally took the officials to the fields to plant trees and encourage afforestation. He designated that day as Arbor Day and required that trees should be planted on Arbor Day every year in the future to prevent droughts.

Zhu Cixi felt that he was very busy every day, and he was planning to build a talent gathering building to recruit talents. Firstly, he wanted to recruit some counselors to make suggestions, and secondly, he left things to the people below to cultivate his own civil servant team.

Although the thousand supervisors of the Nanjing Imperial College have already been working in various governments, Zhu Cihong feels that these people cannot be called wise men yet. He heard that these supervisors who had just left the Imperial College were giving guidance one by one on the way to Fengyang, which was very interesting.

Arrogant.

After these supervisors arrived in Fengyang, Zhu Cixang ordered the supervisors to prohibit empty talk and talk about their abilities, and put these thousand supervisors into grassroots training, such as assisting Yang Tinglin in farm work in various places, or assisting state officials in managing a city.

On the state line, climb up with your own ability.

Now that the military garrison department has been completed and the logistics department is planning to be established, Zhu Cixiang also plans to set up a department dedicated to tax collection and take back all local taxation rights. As for who should be responsible for collecting taxes and managing money for this department, Zhu Cixiang thought of a very suitable

people.......

The peace and prosperity in Fengyang Prefecture and other places have made it a place that victims of the hardest-hit areas in Henan long for. A large number of victims flood into Fengyang Prefecture every day. Since the end of the year, hundreds of thousands of Henan disaster victims have entered Fengyang Prefecture, giving Fengyang Prefecture

It brought a lot of pressure.

Fortunately, Yang Tinglin had outstanding abilities. When the victims began to pour into Fengyang Mansion, he had already built almshouses and began to resettle the victims.

Fengyang Prefecture did not have enough land, so it arranged it in the surrounding prefectures. Nowadays, there is a lot of abandoned land. Although it has been taken back to the government and there are many people to cultivate it, the personnel are still insufficient.

As more and more farmers are being fed, some of the money and grain savings that Zhu Cixi gained from ransacking his homes are almost gone. Fortunately, Fengyang Mansion's farmland is on the right track. Not only has it shed a big burden, but the government has also provided a steady stream of supplies.

food.

Through this year's spring plowing, when the summer harvest comes, Zhu Cihong's Qifu Village will be self-sufficient and bring a large amount of food to the government.

Zhu Cixi also asked people to print out the contents of Xu Guangqi's "Agricultural Policy Complete Book" on how to farm effectively, and organized an agricultural guidance group. After learning and training, these instructors were sent to the countryside to teach people how to farm effectively and improve their skills.

Grain production.
Chapter completed!