Regarding increasing the national treasury's revenue, Ye Jingming mainly focused on agriculture and offered some suggestions.
First, we need to promote and improve the optimized grain varieties.
Secondly, we should build water conservancy projects to minimize the impact of natural disasters such as droughts and floods on the people.
Finally, people without land could cultivate wasteland themselves. The cultivated land was recognized and protected by the government, which issued land deeds and provided seeds. The land was exempt from taxes for three years, after which taxes were paid normally.
Ye Jingming's suggestions, though seemingly conventional and unremarkable, are in fact of profound significance.
Most importantly, his suggestions were not sharp, faced little resistance to implementation, and were feasible to a certain extent.
The emperor was pleased, "You have done a very good job in the Ministry of Personnel these past two years, and this policy essay is also very well written!"
"But what does 'optimized grain varieties' mean?" he asked.
Ye Jingming didn't understand why his father asked that question, so he immediately looked at Ye Jingchen.
The matter of improving grain varieties has always been handled by my elder brother. The success is all due to his ingenious ideas and continuous practice. This is a matter that benefits both the country and the people. Has my elder brother not yet informed our father?
Does Your Majesty have some kind of plan?
Will his inclusion of this matter in his policy proposal affect his elder brother's plans?
Ye Jingming was a little worried, but then he thought that his elder brother had already read his strategy beforehand. If there was anything wrong with it, his elder brother would definitely tell him. Since his elder brother didn't say anything, it meant that the matter was not related.
“Father, didn’t we fill in half an acre of pond in the East Palace to grow rice? Over the years, by chance, we’ve cultivated rice with higher yields and better taste. Didn’t I already tell you about this? Don’t you remember?” Ye Jingchen asked calmly.
"Is that so?" The emperor was full of questions.
He knew that the princes and princesses had planted half an acre of rice in the East Palace, and they had done all the planting work themselves. He had even personally seen the little ones working in the fields several times, looking disheveled and covered in mud.
When the first rice harvest came, Ye Jingchen eagerly sent him a bushel of rice, which he boasted about to the court officials. However, a censor, lacking common sense, impeached Ye Jingchen for this, saying that the crown prince was neglecting his duties. Ye Jingchen was so angry that he beat the censor half to death in court.
He remembered these things, but if Ye Jingchen had told him about something as important as optimizing grain varieties, he couldn't possibly not remember it!
"You've been eating the rice I sent you for years, and you don't even remember this?" Ye Jingchen asked, feigning shock.
The emperor was even more puzzled. He was only thirty years old. Surely he couldn't be so forgetful?
"Zhang Shunde, is this true?" The emperor had no choice but to ask Zhang Shunde, who was standing to the side.
“Your Majesty, it is indeed true! Every year during the autumn harvest, His Highness sends fresh rice to Chengqian Palace. This year’s rice was sent a month ago. You were very satisfied after tasting it and even sent a reward to the East Palace!” Zhang Shunde said hurriedly.
The emperor still had some recollection of what happened a month ago; it seemed to be true. He vaguely remembered that the rice that day was indeed more fragrant and glutinous than the tribute rice he was used to eating.
"Why didn't you tell me that the rice was sent from the Crown Prince's Palace?" the emperor asked with displeasure.
Otherwise, he could have gone to the imperial court and shown off to those old fogies again!
"Your Majesty, please forgive me, it's all my fault!" Zhang Shunde quickly knelt down to beg for forgiveness.
"Father, it's not Eunuch Zhang's fault. It was I who told him not to tell you! Have you forgotten how, six years ago, when I first delivered rice to you, you boasted about it in front of the court officials, which resulted in me being impeached by the censor for neglecting my duties?" Ye Jingchen asked with a mournful expression.
The emperor was immediately embarrassed. He did like to show off, and Ye Jingchen had indeed been impeached by the censors several times because of his showing off. But that was not his fault. The fault lay with those meddlesome censors who were just sour grapes!
"Your subject did mention to you that the rice we grow has a higher yield than rice grown in ordinary fertile fields. Perhaps you were too busy at the time and didn't notice!" His sorrowful expression turned into disappointment.
Reminded by Ye Jingchen, the emperor remembered that there was indeed such a thing. Ye Jingchen seemed to have mentioned it once, but he did not pay attention to it at the time. After all, the yield of half an acre of land could not prove anything. Moreover, he did not believe that a few children could cultivate excellent grain seeds by playing around. It was probably because the fields in the palace were different from the fields outside.
"Your subject knows that you feel that the fields in the palace are not comparable to those of ordinary people, so your subject asked your uncle for help to find different types of soil to conduct experiments. Even when Zemin went to the northern frontier, your subject asked him to take grain seeds with him. As it turns out, after the grain seeds were optimized, the yield was indeed increased significantly, even in the barren northern frontier!"
"Is that really true? How much has the revenue increased?" Upon hearing this, the emperor didn't bother to think about why he hadn't paid attention to this matter before, and quickly asked.
“In fertile fields like those in Jizhou, the yield per mu has at least doubled, while in barren and cold places like the northern frontier, the yield has only increased by half.”
"There are so many?!" The emperor could hardly believe what he was hearing.
Ye Jingchen was also impressed by the emperor.
Although he did try to outsmart the emperor in this matter, many prefectures and counties are now using the new grain varieties. If the emperor had paid even a little attention to this matter, he would have noticed the clues.
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