"Your Majesty, before answering this question, I have another suggestion."
Zhao Huan said, "Minister Chen, please speak."
"Your Majesty wishes to relocate 200,000 people to Tokyo. I believe that we can simply move them there directly, and there is no need to worry about the lack of people farming in the Gyeonggi Province."
Upon hearing Chen Fu's words, Xu Churen couldn't help but ridicule him. He said with a hint of sarcasm, "Nonsense! Food is the most important thing for the people. If 200,000 people are forcibly relocated to Tokyo, next year's grain production will inevitably decline. If famine breaks out and causes a popular uprising, who will be responsible!"
Tang Ke and He were also watching the spectacle from the sidelines, as if to say, "Emperor, where did you find this idiot? How dare he discuss matters of state and make such irresponsible remarks!"
Zhao Huan became curious. He knew that although Chen Fu was not a talent for governing the world, he was definitely an expert in agriculture. Although he also studied Confucianism, he studied all schools of thought and spent many years conducting research in rural areas. He could be considered a top talent.
Such a person would never speak nonsense.
Faced with Xu Churen's challenge, Chen Fu remained calm and said, "The north is mostly arid, and the harvest is only once a year, which is much worse than that south of the Yangtze River. Minister Zhou should have the statistics from previous years. In the Central Plains, each mu yields one shi of wheat. Fan Zhongyan's 'Ten Points in Response to the Imperial Edict' mentions the situation in Suzhou, where in a medium-yield, each mu yields two to three shi of rice. Moreover, the south has many lakes, and fishing is thriving. Furthermore, the plains of Jiangling Prefecture have a humid climate, suitable for the cultivation of various crops. I believe that the court should prioritize the Poyang Lake and Dongting Lake areas for the agriculture of the Song Dynasty. If these two areas are developed, not to mention 200,000 people, even if Your Majesty were to relocate another million people to the capital, there would be enough food to supply them."
"If the agriculture of the Song Dynasty were moved to the south, mulberry trees could be planted on the slopes and embankments, fish could be raised in the ponds, and the water could be used to irrigate the fields."
Zhao Huan then came to his senses and thought to himself: Damn it, I've really wasted my time as a transmigrator. The two lakes are bountiful, and the whole country is well-fed. Poyang Lake and Dongting Lake are the most important areas for agriculture!
In fact, China's economy began to shift southward as early as the Tang Dynasty. By the Song Dynasty, with the rise of cities like Hangzhou, Jiangling, and Chengdu, the southern economy began to flourish. The south truly began to surpass the north at the turn of the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties, when war broke out in the north and people from the Central Plains migrated south.
Take the Southern Song Dynasty for example. It carried out large-scale reclamation in the Poyang Lake and Dongting Lake areas. Even without the northern lands, the country's grain supply would be more than sufficient.
Commerce can only be developed when there is enough food. Otherwise, if people can't even get enough to eat and the food supply is insufficient, how can they have the energy to develop commerce?
For example, during the Qin and Han dynasties, agricultural productivity was low. The daily productivity of an adult could only support 1.5 people at most. Merchants did not engage in agricultural production. With the removal of officials, farmers could not leave the fields under such productivity, otherwise everyone would starve to death. Furthermore, the imperial court had to curb the number of merchants, otherwise no one would farm the land, and everyone would still starve to death.
But things were completely different in the Song Dynasty. Various agricultural tools emerged, and through the reclamation and research of successive generations, the area south of the Yangtze River had transformed from a barbarian land during the Zhou Dynasty into a fertile land of fish and rice that was even more abundant than the Central Plains.
Only when food is plentiful can commerce have a foundation. That's why dynasties like the Southern Song, despite being in a precarious position, were incredibly wealthy.
Zhao Huan felt that agricultural technology research and development was not something that could be accomplished overnight, but innovation in business models could yield results quickly.
For example, Chen Fu said that mulberry trees can be planted on the slopes and embankments, fish can be raised in the ponds, and the water can be used to irrigate the fields.
This is the prototype of the agricultural ecology of later generations, which can make full and rational use of natural resources and greatly improve efficiency.
Zhao Huan, being a history idiot, was of course unaware that Chen Fu, the man before him, was a famous agricultural scientist in the history of the Song Dynasty. He even devoted his life to writing a book called "The Book of Agriculture," which was a theory of agricultural ecosystems compiled based on his many years of field experience and his own insights.
Xu Churen then stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, I believe that the South has a vast terrain, and it will take time to reclaim new land. It certainly cannot be completed within a year."
Chen Fu then said, “Your Majesty, I am not talented, but I have a map of agriculture in Jiangnan here. It is a map I have drawn over the years as I traveled all over the Jiangnan region. I wish to present it to Your Majesty.”
Zhao Huan was overjoyed. Chen Fu said, "Your Majesty, please wait a moment. I will go and fetch it right away."
Before long, Chen Fu returned with a dark-colored long scroll in his hand, which he presented to Zhao Huan. Zhao Huan was overjoyed, thinking, "This is truly heaven's help!"
He excitedly opened Chen Fu's agricultural map. At a glance, it looked very similar to the outline of southern China on the map of China he had seen online in his previous life. It had many detailed labels, indicating which areas were rivers, which areas were hills, and what crops were suitable for planting.
Birds flew across the sky bathed in the setting sun, and the slanting sunlight streamed in from outside, making the pavilions in the backyard of the Academy of Sciences quiet and secluded.
Zhao Huan ordered the map to be hung up. His eyes were shining. In ancient times, maps were very precious, especially since this map provided a detailed description of the natural climate of the Jiangnan region.
This is practically a national treasure-level strategic map of the Song Dynasty!
Even Xu Churen was stunned, never expecting that Chen Fu would have such a thing!
The crowd remained silent for a while, watching as the emperor paced excitedly back and forth in front of the map, seemingly lost in thought, though he appeared to be planning something momentous.
"Xu Churen, Zhou Chao, tell me, is it feasible to cultivate land to the south?"
Xu Churen and Zhou Chao exchanged a glance. As the Minister of Revenue and concurrently the Commissioner of the Three Departments, Zhou Chao was naturally very familiar with the annual tax revenue of the Song Dynasty. The agricultural tax in the Central Plains was indeed decreasing year by year, while the agricultural tax in the south was steadily increasing.
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