Chapter 750 849 Grain Transportation by Sea

The Ming Dynasty was one of the dynasties with the most frequent disasters in Chinese history. It was slightly better in the early Ming Dynasty, but in the middle and late periods, disasters became more serious and the frequency of occurrence continued to accelerate.

Especially after the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, natural disasters such as earthquakes, droughts and floods occurred on a large scale across the country. However, the frequency and intensity of natural disasters, especially floods, not only attracted great attention from the court, but also reflected the characteristics and laws of flood disasters in the Ming Dynasty.

In the late Jiajing period, there was a flood almost every three years, and droughts broke out in various places during this period, which made the court at that time unable to cope with disaster relief.

After the drought, production was restored, and after the flood, water control became a major project that required the court to invest a lot of manpower and material resources.

Someone once counted that in the 276 years of the Ming Dynasty, the cumulative number of various disasters reached 1,011, which is an unprecedented record.

Among them, there were 196 floods, 174 droughts, 156 earthquakes, 12 hailstorms, 97 windstorms, and 94 locust disasters.

In addition, there were 93 famines, 64 epidemics, and 16 frost and snow disasters.

Rather than saying that the Ming Dynasty was killing itself, natural disasters also played an important role in it.

Wei Guangde was not aware of these before he became an official.

Until the beginning of his official career, he only felt that the disasters in various places were serious. How could there be so many.

When he entered the cabinet and really saw the disasters reported from various places, he had more insights. It was not easy for the Ming Dynasty to survive these disasters for more than 200 years.

For these, Wei Guangde wanted to make some changes with the knowledge of later generations, but after thinking for a long time, he concluded that natural disasters could not be stopped at all, and nothing could be done except to do a good job in the aftermath.

Take this flood for example. In the third year of Longqing, on the Gengshen day of the eighth month, the Yellow River flooded and Xuyi was affected. In September, the Huai River overflowed, Gaojia Weir collapsed, and the Huai River flowed eastward. The water depth in Xuyi was more than 5 feet.

This flood in the Yellow River and Huai River basins directly led to the intermittent grain transport, siltation in many sections, and difficulty in sailing.

Well, this is what the court has to do. It must ensure that enough grain arrives in Beijing every year, otherwise there may be chaos in the north.

Move the capital?

At the moment when Wei Guangde was at a loss, he used a method mentioned in countless novels about traveling through the Ming Dynasty.

If the capital moves south and returns to Nanjing, the grain transport in the north can be avoided.

However, the hidden dangers of moving the capital are also great, which may further weaken the empire's control over the northern territory, and this does not take into account the huge financial and material resources required for moving the capital.

Sea transportation?

Wei Guangde suddenly remembered the sea transportation that Jia Yingchun had strongly advocated, although the final result was only to maintain sea transportation to Liao for several years, and now it has been stopped again.

This time the flood was so severe, and a large number of grain ships were still stuck in the Huai'an area. This year's grain transportation quota will definitely not be completed.

Of course, the court will not immediately make a big fuss because of the interruption of grain transportation this year. Tongzhou warehouse still has a large amount of grain reserves, enough to support the capital for more than two years.

The Ming Dynasty has always been in the habit of storing a large amount of grain in Tongzhou and other places, and the minimum requirement is to reserve three years of grain. In fact, it is to foresee such things, and it is also to reserve grain for the war that may break out in the north at any time.

So although the court was overwhelmed by the flood, it actually will not have much impact in the short term.

At this time, everyone is not thinking about how to alleviate it, but is worried about the money needed to control the flood after the flood.

Wei Guangde proposed to Zhu Heng that Pan Jixun be re-employed to manage the floods. One purpose was to wash away Zhu Heng's mediocrity that might be impeached, and the other was that at this time, the court always had to do something.

Which government offices do we need to rely on to restart sea transportation?

In addition to the government offices at the departure point, there are also the government offices for grain transport. Now they are the only ones in the Ming Dynasty that have ships, especially sand ships, which can be quickly converted into sea vessels.

In addition, the Ministry of Households and the Ministry of Works need to assist, after all, they have to rush to build docks, and there are also sea charts from the Ministry of War.

Thinking of the departure point, Wei Guangde immediately thought of Huai'an. Now a large number of grain ships are congested there. If they are asked to change their route to go to sea, it may not be easy, but if other prefectures and counties in Jiangnan transfer grain, it is estimated that not much can be gathered.

After all, this year's taxes have been collected, local grain has been shipped, and there will not be much left in the government treasury.

After thinking for a long time, Wei Guangde still felt a dilemma and it was difficult to choose.

At this moment, he had no interest in handling official documents, but got up and paced back and forth in the room.

Recalling the situation of sea transportation in the Ming Dynasty, in fact, from Hongwu to Yongle, the court did not give up sea transportation. Even though Emperor Yongle moved the capital to Beijing and vigorously dug the canal, the Ming Dynasty still had sea transportation of grain. After all, it was a matter between Yongle and Tianshun.

Shaking his head, Wei Guangde felt that these things could not be done by thinking alone, and he had to find a way to put them into practice, that is, to send ships from the Yangtze River estuary to explore along the old route to confirm the safety of the route. If the Yuan Dynasty could do it, there was no reason why the Ming Dynasty could not do it.

If not, set a standard for the grain transport office, leaving a certain amount of grain from the annual grain transport to the north to Beijing by sea, even if the amount was less, tens of thousands of stones would be fine.

Thinking of this, Wei Guangde walked back to the desk to collect the official documents, spread out the paper and prepared to write a memorial.

Wei Guangde's memorial started with the sea transport in the early Ming Dynasty. It detailed that the early Ming Dynasty inherited the Yuan system and implemented the grain transport mode of river and sea transport in parallel, with sea transport as the main mode. In the 13th year of Yongle, sea transport was abolished and the focus was on inland rivers, and the transportation pattern underwent major changes.

The sea transport in the early Ming Dynasty mainly served the needs of military conquest and provided material guarantee for the elimination of the remnant Yuan forces. The long-distance grain transport was mostly carried out by sea, and its sea transport still followed the route of the Yuan Dynasty. Therefore, the difficulties of sea transport such as delays in grain transport, grain drifting, and drowning of transport soldiers were no different from those of previous generations.

In addition, the sea transport in the early Ming Dynasty also faced harassment from Japanese pirates. Under such circumstances, the court abolished sea transport twice and focused on river transport.

As early as the sixth year of Hongwu, some ministers suggested that the northern region be cultivated to reduce the allocation of grain in response to the incident of the loss of Liaoxiang by sea transport. Therefore, the court vigorously promoted the garrison policy from the following year, and "the military and civilians in the counties and prefectures of the whole country were engaged in reclamation."

As the scale of military farming gradually expanded, in the 27th year of Hongwu, the court ordered the 21 guards of Liaodong, Dingliao and other places to achieve self-sufficiency in military farming from the following year, "to relieve the labor of sea transportation".

By the 30th year of Hongwu, there was a surplus of military pay in Liaodong, and the court no longer needed to transport grain to Liaodong by sea, so it stopped shipping grain to Liaodong by sea. This was the first suspension of sea transportation.

Shortly after the suspension of sea transportation, in March of the first year of Yongle, due to insufficient military reserves in Beijing, the court decided to resume sea transportation and ordered Chen Xuan, the Earl of Pingjiang, and Xuan Xin, the deputy governor, to be the general commander to supervise sea transportation and be responsible for transporting grain and salaries to Liaodong and Beijing.

Regarding the reopening of sea transportation, the ministers expressed their own opinions, but in July of the same year, attempts were made to open multiple transportation routes.

In August, Chen Xuan supervised the transportation of nearly 50,000 shi of grain and salaries by sea to Beijing and Liaodong. This success encouraged the court's determination to transport grain by sea.

It should be noted that the route at that time was proposed by Yu Xin, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, to use the method of land and water transportation on the Wei River. The transportation method of river and sea transportation was finally established two years later.

However, there were three main routes for grain transportation at that time: the first was to transport grain from Jiangnan to the north by sea, reaching 1 million shi per year, so in addition to building a million warehouses in Yinerwan City, Zhigu, in the north, and "building earth into mountains and setting up beacons and signs" in Qingpu, Jiading County, in the south.

The second was river transportation from the Huaihe River and the Yellow River to Yangwu, Henan, and then dispatching Shanxi and Henan Dingfu to transport 170 miles by land to Weihui and enter the Wei River, and finally reach Tongzhou;

The third was to open up a route for transporting millet from Henan and Shandong from Linqing Warehouse to Beijing.

However, the latter two were civilian transportation, and were far less important than official military transportation in terms of transportation volume and professionalism.

In short, from the early years of Hongwu to the founding of Beijing by Emperor Chengzu, although sea transportation was once abolished, in general, the transportation method still inherited the old Yuan Dynasty, and the transportation method of "water and land transportation, and sea transportation" was still implemented.

Sea transportation still faces the danger of wind and waves, but inland rivers are still unable to undertake large-scale grain transportation tasks. The transportation method of river and sea parallel and sea transportation as the main method is the best choice under the circumstances at that time.

In the tenth year of Yongle, Shangshu Song Li strongly advocated the disadvantages of sea transportation, proposed to adjust the river and sea parallel grain transportation method, increase the proportion of river transportation, and suggested sea transportation twice every three years, and allocate one million stones of grain from Zhenjiang, Fengyang, Huai'an, Yangzhou and Yanzhou from the river to Beijing.

Just at this time, Pingjiang Bo Chen Xuan successfully managed the river between Jianghuai.

After the success of large-scale river transportation, in March of the 13th year of Yongle, "sea transportation was stopped" and "sea and land transportation were stopped", only the general transportation of Liao and Ji grain was retained. Every year, 300,000 shi of grain was exchanged in Henan, Shandong, Xiaotan and other water warehouses, part of which was transported to Tianjin, and most of it was transported to Beijing by sea from Zhigu.

After writing this, Wei Guangde just wanted to let Emperor Longqing understand what happened at the beginning. It was because the canal was initially built and the river was unobstructed, so the court stopped sea transportation and devoted itself to river transportation after several years of trial, instead of always focusing on river transportation.

Times have changed, and the current situation of the canal is very different from that of the past. The floods in the Yellow River and Huai River are becoming more and more serious, often blocking traffic and making it difficult for ships to sail. In this predicament, the court might as well try to restore the old sea transportation route and still choose the original method, that is, to take out tens of thousands of shi of grain every year and send it to Beijing by sea.

In fact, the current situation is exactly the opposite of the situation at that time, that is, the canal is no longer able to guarantee large-scale river transportation.

As the old saying goes, "Change leads to smoothness, while no change leads to obstruction; change leads to prosperity, while no change leads to decline; change leads to life, while no change leads to extinction."

Wei Guangde analyzed that it was time for the court to show courage to reform again, and this precedent should be made a custom and no longer abandoned, so that when the canal fell into disrepair or floods blocked traffic, there would still be a steady flow of grain to Beijing.

I thought that if the grain transport was cut off for two or three consecutive years, the grain in Beijing would inevitably lead to chaos. If the court had grain transported to Beijing by sea, it would definitely be able to stabilize the situation.

However, in his memorial, Wei Guangde still suggested that the court should mainly use river transport and supplement it with sea transport. It was not that he did not know the future development, but to reduce resistance.

Only when the sea transport route matures and its advantages are fully utilized, the ministers in the court, especially those officials in the Ministry of Revenue who deal with numbers every day, will find that sea transport is actually more economical than river transport. Even if there is a risk of loss in sea transport, it still has huge advantages in general.

Later in the memorial, Wei Guangde also wrote about the data of the canal's grain being lost and heavy casualties caused by the Yellow River's invasion in the past decade.

Those who oppose maritime transport have always talked about the safety of inland waterway shipping. Wei Guangde also wrote about the risks of waterway shipping in detail in his memorial, so that people can understand that river shipping, like maritime shipping, is risky.

"The seaway is as diverse as the land. People on the sea travel across the sea, just as people on the land travel on the land. Walking along the tide is not crossing the sea. Now that we step out of the seaway, we will not be as close as if we were floating. The sand will be sparse and the earth will collapse. There is no need to worry about the impermanence. also."

Wei Guangde also specifically pointed out that although shipping is extremely dangerous, Zhejiang and Fujian ships have always sailed to overseas trade.

It can be seen that the risks of shipping are actually controllable. Otherwise, how dare a sea-going ship engage in ocean trade like this? It would be the same as committing suicide.

This can be evidenced by the merchant ships in Yuegang. The Fujian merchants fought fiercely for the ship's pilot, and many officials in the capital were lobbied to participate in the fight.

In the first year of Longqing, why did the emperor delay and delay the opening of Yuegang for more than half a year after he made the decision to open the sea? In fact, it was because of these overt and covert struggles.

And because Wei Guangde had the habit of taking shares in trading houses, he also wrote down what he knew about the sand ships in Songjiang, Taicang, Tongzhou, Taizhou and other places, the sea carving ships in Huai'an, and the usual trade by sea to Penglai, Shandong. You know, this place is not far from Tianjin.

In the past, Wei Guangde had considered how to open up water transportation, allowing merchant ships to use canals, and converting grain transport to sea routes, so he collected a lot of data. This time, he felt like he couldn't stop as soon as he started writing, and he finished writing the memorial in one go.

After reading it carefully again, I felt that there was nothing worth revising, so I considered it final.

Some people may think that since they are determined to promote maritime transport, why should the Ministry of Industry ask Pan Jixun to control the water?

In fact, Wei Guangde knows one thing very well, that is, the river transportation cannot be interrupted yet.

When did river transport gradually decline in later generations? It was actually after the 1990s. With the large-scale construction of railways, the advantages of railways replaced river transport.

Moreover, the current economy on both sides of the Grand Canal still needs this artery to maintain, so the canal cannot be abandoned.

Wei Guangde took the memorial and thought about it, folded it and put it in his sleeve. He did not intend to hand it over directly, but wanted to get a few allies to jointly submit the memorial.

The ones with the most say in the DPRK and good relations with him are Chen Yiqin and Yin Shizhen from the cabinet. In addition, Wei Guangde also plans to call Zhu Heng. Wei Guangde does not intend to contact officials from the other six ministries. With these three co-signers, That's enough.

"Lubu."

Wei Guangde shouted outside the house.

As soon as he finished speaking, Lu Bu's figure had already appeared outside the door of the duty room.

After the people came in, Wei Guangde said to him: "Go out and contact your family in the mansion and ask Zhang Ji to send a message to Mr. Zhu, Minister of the Ministry of Industry. I will set up a banquet to treat him to a drink tonight."

"Yes, sir."

Lu Bu agreed and went out to deliver the message, and Wei Guangde also got up and walked to Yin Shizhen's room. It would be better to go and invite Chen Yiqin and Yin Shizhen in person.