After fighting for the present, almost all the families in the southeast have felt powerless.

Wang Ning'an had no scruples, and they were completely passively beaten. Everyone wanted to ask if there was still a chance of winning. If there was no such thing as a slightest, he would admit defeat and surrender as soon as possible, or simply escape overseas and could save his life. If this continues, even if Wang Ning'an does not kill people, the cruel officials he raised will still kill people.

Faced with everyone's doubts, Zheng Xia cleared his throat.

"Don't be discouraged, everyone, the key to our victory is on the grain!"

"How do you say it?" everyone asked together.

"You all know that in recent years, mulberry trees and cotton are planted in the southeast. In fact, grain fields have been reduced. Many fish and rice towns have to purchase grain from outside to maintain... Every year, the imperial court transports grain from the southeast to Beijing, and the grain and rice remaining in the southeast will be used for less than half a year. Therefore, it is necessary to transport it from Jiangnan West Road, Jinghu Road and other places to meet the food rations of tens of millions of people in Jiangnan!"

Zheng Xia talked about a fact that is easy to be ignored. With the development of industry and commerce, textiles prosper, and the southeastern grains in the world can no longer be completely self-sufficient, which is completely different from the world's granary decades ago.

Then why did the imperial court still transport grain from the southeast? The reason is very simple. The canal is there. At this time, the Song Dynasty still had the capital to rebuild a canal system? Obviously not, it would be too wasteful to the people and money.

Therefore, the imperial court still transported grain from the southeast. As for the insufficient parts in the southeast, it was transported from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. With the help of the Yangtze River waterway, the cost would not be too high. Therefore, Jiangnan can still be maintained smoothly, but anyone with discerning eyes can see that the grain supply in Jiangnan is actually in a very fragile and dangerous state.

"Everyone, we can't compete with Wang Ning'an in the southeast, but we can go to Jiangnan West Road, Jinghu Road, Bashu, and purchase the grain there and keep it in our hands. As long as the grain upstream cannot be transported, after the grain is transported, the southeast will fall into a food shortage within two months. People in the city have no food to eat. No matter how capable Wang Ning'an has, can he suppress it?"

Liu Zhi's eyes lit up and he praised: "Sure enough, if we encourage the Japanese pirates to attack and let the Manichaeism cause trouble, and all parties attack together, Wang Ning'an's butt will burn!"

The more these people discussed, the happier they became, as if they had defeated Wang Ning'an.

Only Liu Han, when he heard it, he actually felt a chill!

What are you all doing?

He really wanted to grab everyone's neck and question them!

This move is so harmful. The people in the southeast are also your fellow villagers. They don’t feel any pain at all. They send tens of millions of people to desperate situations without hesitation. Can you really do it?

He was excluding food, and he wanted to attract Japanese pirates to attack, and colluded with Manichaeism... If he was exposed, he would be a serious crime to destroy the nine clans. In the past, he would have fought against the imperial court, but this time he also treated the people in the southeast as bargaining chips. How could the major families gain a foothold in the southeast in the future?

After all, he was a priest, and Liu Ying felt more and more afraid the more he thought about it. Moreover, the behavior of these people made him feel disgusted. Without any awe or a trace of reflection, he insisted on his own way and ran to the dark side. Is this possible?

Liu Heng kept asking himself, but he had no choice. He had been tied up to the pirate ship, so he couldn't think of going down.

"Oh... this method is OK, but you must remember that once Wang Ning'an is driven away, you must release food as soon as possible. You cannot starve people to death in Jiangnan. Otherwise, what's the face we have? Goodbye to the villagers in the southeast!"

Zheng Xia and others naturally nodded, but they didn't agree.

You treat the people in the southeast as fellow villagers, but I’m sorry, they did not stand on the side of the aristocratic family, but ran away with Wang Ning'an. The militia everywhere yelled everywhere to equalize the fields. If you are not kind and I am unrighteous, I will not give these lowly talents. If you teach a lesson, they will not know the world is high! I don’t know who will give them food!

...

"Prince, the first batch of grain, million stones, has been collected." Chen Shunzhi was very excited. He smiled and said, "Although this year, it has affected a lot because of the distribution of land and the chaos of the grain gang, after obtaining the land, the people are motivated!"

"The harvesting work that took half a month in previous years was completed in ten days this year. Every household, men, women, young and old, worked together day and night. After the harvest, many people carried it on their shoulders and pushed it with small cars, actively ran dozens of miles away, and handed over the grain... In previous years, they couldn't get up, but this year they took the initiative to hand over it, and even exceeded the amount. The old officials in the local area said that they had never seen such a lively scene." Chen Shunzhi grabbed his beard and couldn't help laughing: "The old saying is good, who wins the hearts of the people will win the world. The prince's move is really clever!"

Wang Ning'an did not have much fluctuation. It was not that he was so arrogant, but that he knew it clearly that dividing the fields was a magical tool, so the effect was naturally needless to say.

"Old Chen, this time, the land distribution is actually to resolve the problem of urbanization. Nearly 40% of the citizens in Jiangnan are included. If the working population is included, it is nearly 50%. The food supply is actually very fragile. Under the rent-living model, the tenant farmers are not very enthusiastic, and the landlords of aristocratic families hoard a large amount of grain and raise prices, resulting in insufficient food circulation in the market and high grain prices... I knew this problem a few years ago that if it could be controlled as soon as possible, it might not have reached the stage of land distribution."

Chen Shunzhi smiled and said, "Your Majesty, I used Han Jiang back then, but I really couldn't find time to manage the northwest at that time. Fortunately, the situation could be cleaned up. After the land was divided, the people's enthusiasm was high. After the autumn grain harvest, many people pushed grain, vegetables, chicken, duck, fish and meat to the city for sale. Now there is enough food on the market and the prices are stable. The situation is very good. If the land distribution order can be completely pushed, there should be no problem after next year."

Chen Shunzhi was very optimistic, but Wang Ning'an suddenly frowned.

He calculated a little. With the productivity of the Song Dynasty, a man of high school farming could support three people. According to a family of three, a child was calculated to be half a person, and the food sold was actually only half a person.

In this way, among the ten people, there must be at least seven farmers to support the population of three cities. In other words, the urbanization rate cannot exceed 30... and in many places, the urbanization rate in the southeast exceeds 40%!

And what’s even more serious is that the farmlands in the southeast are not all planted crops, but also mulberry trees and cotton!

How to make up for the food gap?

"Old Chen, go check immediately and find out for me what the food supply in the southeast is. "

Wang Ning'an's face was grim. Chen Shunzhi did not dare to neglect and went immediately. After about half a day, all of them, including Zhang Dun and Wang Anli arrived.

Chen Shunzhi blushed slightly. He was still a counselor. He was not as careful as Wang Ning'an, and he didn't see the danger. He deserved to die!

"Your Majesty, I have found out that the Southeast has to transfer 700 to 8 million stones of grain from Jiangnan West Road and Jinghu Road every year. In some years, grain from Lingnan must be adjusted to maintain it!"

There have been many people in the Song Dynasty, but Wang Ning'an has asked someone to calculate based on the consumption of salt. The population of the Song Dynasty should have exceeded 100 million recently! Of course, Wang Ning'an also has the contributions of it.

To solve so many mouths, a stable food supply is needed.

First of all, Hebei is an industrial area of ​​the Song Dynasty. Most of the grain needed is transported from Lingnan, Jiaozhi, Chameng and other places. 15 million stones are provided every year, part of which is used as military rations and part is transported to the two capitals to supplement the gap in grain.

In addition, 10 million stones of grain were transferred from the southeast to supply the two capitals.

The gap in the southeast is supplemented from the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

In recent years, there has been a problem, that is, the economy of Bashu has developed. Shu brocade is sold well through the Silk Road. The original grain-producing areas and the country of Tianfu are now difficult to sell grain. Other areas of Bashu even have to buy grain from the surrounding area... In the past one or two years, some people have sold grain from the Western Regions to the northwest and transported it to Bashu...

Chen Shunzhi drew a clear map based on the sales and demand of grain and presented it to everyone.

"Your Majesty, not just the southeast. The entire Song Dynasty was in a very dangerous state, especially the disasters in the north, and the grain gap was increasing day by day. If food security was not solved, the entire Song Dynasty would have no future!" Chen Shunzhi sighed very much.

Zhang Dun frowned, "That's too far, just talk about it! If someone cut off the source of food and grass transport to the southeast, how should we deal with it?"

Everyone looked at this map and Chen Shunzhi said: "First of all, there is no need to worry about this line on the sea. Although there are Japanese pirates, our Song Dynasty navy is not a small matter! Those armed merchant ships are not something that ordinary Japanese pirates can deal with... The grain in the capital must be allocated in full. The current problem is Jiangnan West Road and Jinghu South North Road. It is necessary to ensure that the grain is transported in full."

Wang Ning'an said in a low voice: "Can you do it?"

"This..." Chen Shunzhi hesitated, "It's very difficult. We are beyond our reach in these two places. There is neither a suitable candidate nor a garrison now. If you want to force them to adjust food, it may not work!"

"What are you waiting for!"

Wang Ning'an hit the table hard and said viciously: "Don't forget, what kind of people are we facing! They dare to collude with Japanese pirates and encourage the Cao Gang to make trouble, and they dare to fight the Cao Gang!"

"What the prince said is reasonable, let's act immediately!"

Wang Ning'an pondered for a moment, "Old Chen, go and tell Brother Jiefu that he will go to Jinghu in person. In any case, we must ensure food security! In addition, there is another way... order 20,000 people to go south to Hangzhou. I will personally meet these aristocratic families and see what other tricks they can play!"

Almost at the same time, representatives of various aristocratic families also carried a huge sum of 30 million yuan and almost everyone's worth, and went to other roads. The footsteps of desperate bets and decisive battles finally arrived...
Chapter completed!