Facing the strange gazes of Zeng Cheng and a host of other bigwigs, Liu Huaiwen also realized the situation, but he had no intention of backing down: "In any case, the Right Army Governor's Office is going to punish the wicked and recruit some laborers, isn't it just a matter of convenience?"
"Think about it yourselves. With laborers, can you build railways? With railways, can you let the common people migrate there? Once the common people migrate, won't the merchants follow?"
Zeng Cheng couldn't find any fault with Liu Huaiwen's reasoning, but he always felt something was not quite right.
Could such a thing be done?
Zhu Jinsong chuckled and directly pointed out the biggest loophole in Liu Huaiwen's words: "That's what you say, but what about the people? Our Great Ming only has a little over 300 million people. How many common people can you migrate?"
"Besides, if your treasury had a little less gold and silver, and you had enough space for a couple of catties of grain, the rats wouldn't starve to death!"
After Zhu Jinsong's remark, Liu Huaiwen, who had been so eloquent moments ago, was immediately silenced.
Yes, there were only about 300 million people in the entire Great Ming, what was that enough for?
If the Nurgan Regional Military Commission was counted as a provincial administration, and the grasslands were also counted as a provincial administration, along with the newly established U-Tsang and Dorje Sum provincial administrations, Jiaozhi, Burma, Xianglin, Lin Yi, and Joseon, and considering the original eighteen provinces of Han and the Great Ryukyu, then Great Ming had a total of twenty-eight provincial administrations.
With 300 million people, it was a little over ten million people per provincial administration on average, and after averaging by prefecture and county, it was only a million or so. If further averaged by each county, it might be only a hundred thousand.
Not to mention that Nurgan Regional Military Commission, the grasslands, and U-Tsang were vast territories with few people.
After Liu Huaiwen was silenced, Zhu Jinsong sighed again and said, "Vast territory, sparse population, too few people."
According to later calculations, the total land area of the Great Ming had already approached 17 million square kilometers. The population of 300 million people in proportion to such a vast land area resulted in a population density of only about 18.75, similar to Russia, belonging to the sparsely populated category.
To achieve a normal population density, the population of Great Ming should be at least 600 million, almost half short.
In other words, Great Ming itself was severely underpopulated. Let alone opening up new territories, even the existing territories could not be filled.
Of course, this planning method only calculated the average.
In reality, the distribution of Great Ming's 300 million people was extremely uneven. Some places had very few people, and some places had many people. 200 million of the 300 million people were concentrated in the eighteen provinces of Han.
This situation was very abnormal.
The best choice for migrating people to the newly recovered provincial administrations would naturally be the eighteen provinces of Han, which had a higher population density, especially the provinces with relatively higher density.
However, the uneven distribution of population often meant that the development of each provincial administration was also uneven. For example, the Jiangnan and Zhejiang regions were relatively wealthy, while the conditions in Gansu and Shaanxi were poorer. The conditions in Dorje Sum and U-Tsang were even worse.
Under normal circumstances, the better the economic and living conditions, the less willing the common people would be to migrate.
Especially with the advancement of Great Ming's industrialization, the living conditions of the common people had improved further. Even without relying on farming, they could live quite well. In this situation, the migration desire of the common people naturally became even smaller.
Therefore, the biggest problem facing Great Ming was its vast territory, its small population, and its relatively high population density.
This was a great hidden danger, and also a hidden danger that all dynasties had to face.
As is well known, the most troublesome problem for dynasties in history was land annexation, which almost led to dynastic changes every two to three hundred years to solve the problem of excessive population pressure.
But from another perspective, was the population density of those dynasties really high?
Not really.
The average population density of the Central Plains in history was not large; what was large was the relative population density.
The problem was that with a small relative population density and poor transportation conditions, the motivation for outward expansion was insufficient. And with a large relative population density, it led to a shortage of means of production, followed by endless land annexation, and then the start of the next cycle.
From another perspective, it meant that a large average population density would be a good thing—as long as territory was expanded, the land area would be increased.
Did they really think that the civil and military officials who left their names in history did not know the benefits of expanding territory?
Don't be foolish. Expanding territory, conquering Xiongnu, such deeds that would be recorded in history were almost the ultimate dream of any emperor and civil or military official.
To put it bluntly, they did not know, nor did they not want to, but because the average population density was not enough, even if they occupied territory, no one would live there, and it would not be able to be defended sooner or later. Forcing the migration of people to the frontier was also prone to causing trouble. After a few generations of intermingling of Han and barbarians, it might lead to another Annam or Burma.
This was the root of the problem, and an almost unsolvable vicious cycle.
The only way to break through this deadlock was to solve the transportation problem.
Only by solving the transportation problem and having a sufficient number of people could the court carry out rapid and large-scale immigration, thereby avoiding the sinicization of immigrants.
Only by solving the transportation problem could the court implement truly effective direct rule over the newly occupied areas, and the common people would not feel a sense of alienation because they could not return to their hometowns.
This was why Zhu Jinsong and the Great Ming court had been madly undertaking infrastructure construction of roads, bridges, and railways, while also madly advancing the process of industrialization.
The purpose was to make the entire Great Ming populace mobile, thereby solving the problems of low average population density and high relative population density.
Yes, it was to promote the process of industrialization rather than the industrial revolution, because the essence of the industrial revolution was that the emergence of advanced technologies would release a large amount of labor, making those small workshops and small industrialists who relied on handicrafts for a living lose their means of survival. The original social state could no longer be maintained stably, thus triggering reforms.
When the population was severely insufficient, what was the point of an industrial revolution?
What's more, besides advanced technologies that could release a large amount of labor, another condition supporting the industrial revolution was talent.
Whether it was the twenty-first century or any other time, talent was always the most expensive.
Now, if Great Ming had talent, it certainly did, but it had basically been monopolized by Zhu Jinsong.
Especially those great and small experts in the Royal Academy, who dared to say that they were not talents?
But what about below them?
Thanks to the efforts of four generations of wise and sagacious monarchs of Great Ming, from Shunzhi to Qianlong, over the past more than 150 years of my Great Qing, the literacy rate in the Central Plains had fallen to a shocking level, with the illiteracy rate exceeding ninety percent.
To put it bluntly, a large number of common people did not even recognize their own names, let alone the sophisticated act of being able to write their own names.
Even though Zhu Jinsong had been working hard to promote literacy and social schools and county schools, it was not something that could be accomplished overnight.
Industrial Revolution?
Bah, even calling it promoting industrialization was flattering Zhu Jinsong and the Great Ming court.
Upon thinking of these messy issues, Zhu Jinsong's brow furrowed even tighter. Although Zeng Cheng and the other bigwigs did not know the difference between an industrial revolution and industrialization, when they thought of the vast territory of Great Ming with no one to inhabit it, Zeng Cheng and the others also felt distressed.
They still had to think of a way to see how to encourage the common people to have more children.
After a long pause, Zeng Cheng said thoughtfully, "We still need to speed up the construction of railways and roads. Everything else must make way for the construction of railways and roads."
"Once the railways and roads are initially established, some of the large workshops in Shandong will be relocated outward, and at the same time, the construction of large workshops in other places will be intensified."
"Other places must also be allowed to prosper. Only when the living conditions of the common people improve will they have more children."
Song Yucheng, the Minister of Works, nodded and replied, "Then I will think of a way."
Liu Huaiwen continued to have a headache.
What kind of meeting was this?
The Right Army Governor's Office was going to send troops to fight the little Jurchen, and then they had to buy oil from the barbarians of Europe, and at the same time, the Ministry of Works had to increase the construction of roads and railways.
In short, the national treasury still had to pay money?
A bunch of spendthrifts who didn't know the cost of firewood and rice!
Bah!
…
Just as Liu Huaiwen was spitting at Zhu Jinsong and the other spendthrifts, Luo Fangbo, along with Jiang Wubo and others, arrived at the Guangdong Customs.
Like Pierre and others, Luo Fangbo and Jiang Wubo, who were seeing the Great Ming Customs for the first time, did not know what language to use to describe their thoughts.
Having left home for only a little over a decade, they felt as if they were returning home after a long absence, with their hometown accent unchanged but their temples grayed. Children who met them did not recognize them, smiling and asking where the visitor came from.
It was clearly the land where they were born and raised, and they had only been away from home for about ten years, but why did everything seem so strange?
Back then, the Guangzhou port was filled with European merchant ships flying the flags of various European countries. The few small and broken ships of the Great Qing Navy, compared to those tall and sturdy European merchant ships, not only had no deterrence but even appeared somewhat ridiculous and comical.
However, this ridiculous and comical scene was something that only those European barbarians could truly laugh heartily at. The people of Great Qing had to smile along and scramble for the leftovers thrown by those European barbarians, picking up the discarded tea leaves after the Europeans drank them to make water.
This was wrong. Clearly, they were the masters of this land, and those European barbarians were outsiders. Why did they live better than them? Why did they have to smile and curry favor with them?
Luo Fangbo was very displeased, but he could not change the situation.
How to change it?
The court of Great Qing did not want to change, so what could those mud-dwellers, who were not even considered servants, do?
Unable to bear it any longer, and also because life was too difficult, Luo Fangbo, in a fit of anger, went to Borneo and gradually reached his current position.
In order to preserve the survival of those Great Qing people in Borneo, Luo Fangbo had to hold his nose, suppress the urge to vomit, and send people to pledge allegiance and pay tribute to Great Qing, hoping to obtain a status as a vassal state—although Great Qing did not do human things, it could at least deter those Dutch barbarians, right?
Fortunately, Great Qing was gone!
"The mountains and rivers have embraced the land of China, and the sun and moon have reopened the Great Ming." Although there were no Great Ming warships patrolling outside the Guangzhou Customs, those European merchant ships flying various flags were all well-behaved, without the arrogance they had before.
The busy common people at the port no longer had those disgusting queues behind their heads. Their hunched backs straightened, and their cautious, fawning smiles turned into confidence.
Luo Fangbo looked at everything before him and felt that he could never get enough of it. Even his steps onto the deck were hesitant.
God has opened his eyes! The Great Ming Emperor actually asked the Lanfang Republic to submit directly? Is he really willing to accept us, these "exiled overseas people who have abandoned their ancestors"?