Daming: I asked you to hang yourself, but I didn’t ask you to rebuild the Ming Dynasty

Killing Zhao Zhixian was not Cao Huayu's ultimate goal.

He also wants to control the entire Wuqing County!

Therefore, sending his men to pretend to be the magistrate of Zhao County became Cao Huayu's best choice.

It would be extremely difficult for an ordinary person to pretend to be a magistrate and take control of a county!

Although the magistrate is the only one in the county, he does not have the final say in the county.

Especially Wuqing, which is an important canal town.

In the 13th year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty, Tao Yunguang, the magistrate of Wuqing County, said in the newly built inscription "Book of Literature Panchi Jukui Tower": "Yongyang arches Shenjing in the north and Cangwei in the south."

The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is responsible for transporting grain from the south to the north.

As long as it serves as a capital, the population will inevitably increase dramatically.

Then the local food is naturally not enough.

In the Ming Dynasty, except for the period after the Wanli reform in the late Ming Dynasty, there was always a tax in kind.

What the people turned over to the state were food, silk, linen, cloth, etc. in kind.

Since its opening, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has been tasked with transporting grain to the capital.

(Of course, before Yongle dredged the Grand Canal, sea transportation was used.)

Since Beijing was established as the capital in the Yuan Dynasty, many large granaries were set up along the Grand Canal, one of which was set up in Wuqing.

How big is this granary in Wuqing?

Let’s take a look at this record first: “There are 14 warehouses, each warehouse includes 50 to 80 warehouses (cabin: equivalent to a large warehouse).

Each warehouse has about three rooms, so the number of warehouses in Fourteen Warehouses is about 2600 to 2700.

The fourteen warehouses store about 226 million shi of grain. "

Even based on the average, this granary in Wuqing can store 16 shi of grain.

Calculated based on one stone of 160 kilograms of grain, that is 2582 million kilograms, or tons.

It can store at least [-] tons of grain. From this, we can know the importance of Wuqing's status.

In other words, it was Cao Huayu, the director of Jinyiwei Nantang, who took action.

If it had been someone else who tried to do this, his whole family’s heads would have fallen off first…

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During the Ming Dynasty, the country's agricultural level was several times higher than before.

In fact, the economic prosperity of the Ming Dynasty and the richness of social materials are completely incomprehensible to future generations.

Although the lack of food led to the demise of the Ming Dynasty. (Intuitive reason.)

However, the length of time that food prices remained stable during the Ming Dynasty was the longest in history.

From the founding of the People's Republic of China to the end of Wanli, a long period of about 250 years, the food supply in the Ming Dynasty was always stable.

From one tael of silver and three stones in the founding of the People's Republic of China to 0.7 taels of silver and one stone in the late Wanli period.

In more than 200 years of development, food prices have only doubled!

Just by looking at this article, you will know the prosperity of agricultural output in the Ming Dynasty.

Food is the most basic, important and indispensable part of society.

The stability of food prices is enough to illustrate the prosperity of Ming Dynasty society.

Of course, there will be fluctuations in certain areas and during certain periods of time.

Of course, except for the late Ming Dynasty——

After the opening of the sea in Longqing, foreign trade silver went into the hands of the gentry. The partial transfer of huge amounts of silver, coupled with the restriction of imperial power, would cause prices to skyrocket.

From an economic point of view, rising food prices in such a state is a normal phenomenon.

That's the saying - a deformed society will lead to deformed phenomena.

Around 200 years ago in the Ming Dynasty, grain prices were always stable below 0.5 taels of silver.

Even if there is a disaster, food prices will not fluctuate much.

such as:

In the second year of Jiajing, there was a drought in Nanjing, and the price of rice was 1.3--1.4 taels.

In the 32nd year of Jiajing, there was a great famine, and the price of rice was 2.2 taels.

Even in the 16th year of Wanli, there was a flood in the Yellow River, and the peeled rice was only 2 taels of silver per stone; the old rice in the warehouse was 1.5--1.6 taels of silver.

This is the price of rice in a disaster year!

For example, now, a kilogram of rice only costs a little more than one piece. What about the price of rice...

Grain prices are divided into: rice price, wheat price, japonica rice price, warehouse rice price, face price...

This was the price when the emperor still had some power.

Let’s look at the Chongzhen Dynasty again:

In the 13th year of Chongzhen, the price of rice in Henan was 34 taels.

14: Shandong rice price is 154 taels...

In the 14th year of Chongzhen’s reign, I took the price of cereals as an example:

Even for miscellaneous grains, a bushel of corn (millet, sorghum, etc.) is sold for more than [-] copper coins.

Ten buckets and one stone, that is to say, one stone of miscellaneous grains, has been sold for one hundred thousand copper coins.

During this period, the exchange price of copper and silver was between more than 700 and more than 800.

According to the exchange rate of eight hundred to one, it is equivalent to 125 taels of silver.

Grains, 125 taels of silver per stone...

Why is this happening?

This is about the transformation process of grain ownership in the Ming Dynasty.

Agriculture was developed in the Ming Dynasty, and granaries in various places often had reserves of more than 10,000 shi.

Even millions of stones!

In the records of "History of the Ming Dynasty", there are also these original words:

"In the 24th year of Hongwu, 16 shi of grain were stored in Linqing to train cavalry."

In fact, after arriving in Yongle, before clearing the warehouse, 150 million shi of grain had been stored all year round!

In the sixth year of Xuande, it was expanded again to accommodate 300 million stones!

Just this one warehouse has exceeded the combined grain storage in the canals of the Yuan Dynasty!

You know, this is still based on the Ming Dynasty's local tax, which was only one tax per thirty.

This is evident from the high grain yield!

If you carefully study the history of the Ming Dynasty, you will find that as long as there is a famine and the investigation is true, the local government will petition for tax reduction or exemption, and the Zhu family will not disagree.

Even though he was so miserably hacked, in the "History of the Ming Dynasty", there is such an original saying - "The people don't know the dangers and famines, and the court doesn't know the shortages!"

Water transportation in the Ming Dynasty was more developed than that in the Yuan Dynasty. The Ming government established a special force to transport grain - the Yunjun. It had more than 1000 ships and 12 officers and soldiers.

Because the granaries are scattered in various places, it is not easy to manage them.

Therefore, Ming Yingzong began to reform:

"Destroy one-third of Linqing, Dezhou, and Wucang in Hexi and change it to Jingtongcang."

After the three dynasties of Emperor Jingtai and Emperor Chenghua, the four major granaries of the canal were formed. (Including the Tianshun Dynasty restored by Yingzong, there are four dynasties.)

They are: Fengjicang in Huai'an, Guangyuncang in Xuzhou, Dezhoucang in Dezhou, and Linqingcang in Linqing.

Why did Ming Yingzong concentrate on granaries?

This will be told later.

Since the four major granaries are involved, let’s talk about one of the causes of Yu Qian’s death.

In the Ming Dynasty, before the "Renyi" Emperor Hongzhi Zhu Youtang, there was an attributive - called "the country accumulates three years of grain."

After Zhu Youtang, it became "two years of national grain production", and after Longqing, it became "one year of national grain production", and even... many granaries did not have a single grain!

What does "three years of national grain production" mean?

——The grain stored in official granaries in the Ming Dynasty was enough to last for three years—the whole country.

In fact, the truth about the demise of the Ming Dynasty can be seen just from the transfer of ownership of grain storage in the official warehouses of the Ming Dynasty.

I remember when I was escaping from the capital, I said something in the comments - "Do you want me to write down the locations of all the granaries in the country?"

The specific location will take a lot of effort...

However, as far as the county is concerned, it is very simple!

I can even tell you whether this place is an official warehouse or a free warehouse!

Mr. Chen Zuoli's master's thesis "Research on Granaries of the Ming Dynasty" specifically talks about this.

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