Upon hearing this, Hai Rui could not help but smile bitterly.

"Your three axes are extremely difficult."

"This is about saving the nation from extinction and changing fate. How can it not be difficult?" Zhao Hao said with a smile, "The first thing, Zhongcheng, don't worry about it. I established Jiangnan Agricultural College to do this. I believe that in five to ten years, we can complete the preparatory work for promotion, such as seed selection, seedling cultivation, and disaster research."

"Really?" Hai Rui couldn't help but asked happily, "Is that what you mentioned before, corn and sweet potatoes?"

"And potatoes." Zhao Hao nodded with a smile and said, "Before, the Agricultural College only had corn. A few years ago, we went to Japan and got potatoes from the Portuguese ship. As for sweet potatoes, I have arranged for people to go to Southeast Asia to search for them. I will definitely find them in a few years at most."

"Okay, when the seeds are grown, you must inform me immediately." Hai Rui patted Zhao Hao on the shoulder and said, "If these things are as miraculous as they sound to you, then you have done a great deed and you won't be afraid of any trouble!"

"It's not that exaggerated." Zhao Hao was not so optimistic. He shook his head and said calmly: "These coarse grains can only keep the people from starving to death, and the premise is that the court does not exploit them too much. Otherwise, they will have no way to survive... Sweet potatoes and corn cannot be taxed. So the key is to keep the pot boiling!"

"You mean immigrating to the south?" Hai Rui asked in a deep voice.

"Yes." Zhao Hao nodded and said, "But just as the Minister of Justice is worried, not only is the population that Jiangnan can carry limited, but immigration overseas is also impossible to achieve overnight. It requires a lot of hard preliminary work. Under the most ideal conditions of eliminating all obstacles, the limit is to be able to move out 5 million people within 30 years."

"Five million is quite exaggerated..." Hai Rui took a breath and said, "That's more than 100,000 people in a year. With such a large population loss, the government can't help but care."

"Hmph, they still have the nerve to do that! Who would leave their homeland if they couldn't make a living?" Li Shizhen couldn't help but said angrily, "There are already more than a million refugees in Suzhou and Songjiang, and I haven't seen any government officials shouting to take people back!"

"Most of the land has been annexed by the royal family. Are we going to capture them and take them back to farm for the princes?" Zhao Hao said with a smile.

"But everything has a limit. Needless to say, the government actually welcomes the escape of a small number of people who can't make ends meet. This will reduce the government's burden and ease the conflict a little bit." Hai Rui said in a deep voice:

"After all, if we can't resolve the conflict, making one party of the conflict disappear is also a solution. But if there are too many people fleeing, who will farm to feed those royal family members? Those royal family members who are like blood-sucking leeches will cause trouble! At that time, the government will have to stop the refugees from fleeing, and even put pressure on Jiangnan to repatriate the refugees."

"What a vassal prince, a pig-like thing!" Li Shizhen spat and said bitterly, "And he's so good at giving birth to children!"

From the perspective of the people of the Ming Dynasty, there is no one who does not hate the royal family and the princes. No wonder Li Shizhen was so angry:

"Just because they have Zhu's bloodline, they can enjoy the imperial support for generations. They also rely on their status as royal relatives to wantonly seize land and plunder the people. Now their numbers can double in about 20 years. In a few decades, it will be strange if the Ming Dynasty does not fall!"

Li Shizhen couldn't help but ask: "This is a truth that ordinary people understand, why can't the court see it?"

"How come the court can't see it? My predecessor, Lin Zhongcheng, made it very clear in his memorial in the 41st year of Jiajing. The country supplies 4 million shi of grain to the capital and the nine borders every year, but the grain supplied to the various princes' palaces is 8 million shi every year. The largest part of the court's annual expenditure is to support these royal family members. Specifically, Shanxi retains 1.9 million shi of tax grain every year, but the local princes consume more than 3 million shi of grain. Henan Province has 940,000 shi of grain, but the local princes consume more than 1.9 million shi of grain..."

"That is to say, even if all the taxes collected by Shandong, Henan, Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces were used to support the royal family, it would still be far from enough. How could there be money left to develop water conservancy and improve people's livelihood? If there is a natural disaster, it will be a disaster." Hai Rui sighed and said:

"Such an obvious thing is like an elephant breaking into the room. How could the officials in the court not see it? They saw it and were anxious. The "Zongfan Regulations" promulgated in the 44th year of Jiajing was the result of the unremitting efforts of Lin Zhongcheng and other officials. The regulations have a total of 67 articles, and the core points are two: one is to strictly limit the number of wives and concubines of the princes. Even if they want to take concubines, they must be approved by the Ministry of Personnel. All children who are not born of wives and concubines will not be granted titles. The second is to reduce the salaries of the princes and cut down on the expenses of the palace."

"The reform this time is quite powerful and it has indeed reduced the pressure on the provinces, but the burden on the people has not been reduced but has increased instead." At this point, Hai Rui's face, which was always full of fighting spirit, showed a rare look of frustration.

"Why?" Li Shizhen asked puzzledly.

"The court cut their salaries, and the princes were dissatisfied, so they took the common people to make up for it. They used their status as royal relatives to seize the people's land and accept contributions from landlords by various means. They were lawless and carried out large-scale annexation, which forced the people to flee."

Hai Rui said depressedly, "Besides, this time, neither the imperial court nor the local governments are willing to wade into this muddy water again. In the end, it is the common people who will suffer anyway."

"Yes, the calamity of the vassal kings has not improved, but has become more and more serious." Zhao Hao nodded and said, "If we don't deal with them, this crisis will be unsolvable."

"Do you have any good ideas?" Hai Rui glanced at Zhao Hao.

"I really didn't." Zhao Hao spread his hands and said, "This kind of thing, looking around the world, only Lord Hai can solve it. I'm just a kid, so I can only cheer for you."

Suddenly, the old lady coughed in the room, and it was obvious that she didn't want her son to get involved in this mess.

"Don't worry, grandma. We are just gossiping." Zhao Hao said with a smile, "It is not your place to meddle in other people's affairs. There is no vassal king in the jurisdiction of Hai Zhongcheng. Even if he wants to, he can't."

"Haha, good boy, don't think grandma is nosy." Xie smiled embarrassedly and said to Zhao Hao, "Grandma told you that the older generation has a saying that outsiders should not interfere in family affairs. I think the royal family is surnamed Zhu and is related to the emperor. The distance between them is obvious. Whether you or Ruxian, you are outsiders after all. You can't get anything good out of interfering."

"Hey, grandma, I'll remember that." Zhao Hao smiled and nodded, "Let's not worry about it."

He came here to see the joy today, not to cause trouble. Anyway, Hai Rui couldn't care about the affairs of the clan and the vassal states now, so he just brought up the topic and they could talk about it again when they had the chance.

The three of them skipped over this disturbing topic, and Li Shizhen asked Zhao Hao what he could do about the upcoming Little Ice River.

"There is a lot that can be done, no less than Mr. Meng He." Zhao Hao smiled and said in a deep voice: "After a major disaster, there will be a major epidemic. There will be no less plague in the future. The projects studied by Jiangnan Medical College, every success will save tens of millions of people in the future."

"Speaking of this, you must visit Jiangnan Hospital later. We have a lot of things we would like to hear your opinion on." Li Shizhen emphasized again.

"Of course." Zhao Hao said with a smile, "You keep inviting me one after another. It seems like you have made some incredible new discoveries."

"You'll know when the time comes." Li Shizhen kept it a secret.

~~

After having dinner at Hai Rui's house and chatting until noon, Zhao Hao and Li Shizhen said goodbye, carrying the red-skinned eggs.

Although Hai Rui still wanted to have an in-depth discussion on the issue of Little Ice River, he would return to Suzhou next year to continue supervising the work. Zhao Hao certainly could not let the women of the Hai family bear a grudge against him, so he had to return Hai Rui to them.

On the way to send Li Shizhen back to Duke Wei's mansion, Zhao Hao suddenly asked, "From what you just said, Duke Wei is dying?"

"It's just these few days." Li Shizhen said calmly, "He's relying on precious medicinal herbs to keep him alive. The people in the mansion don't want him to die in the first month of the year, it's unlucky."

"..." Zhao Hao was stunned for a while, then nodded and smiled bitterly: "That's right, I won't be able to celebrate the New Year in the future. Then I'll stay in Jinling for a while, so I don't have to come back again after just going back."

"That would be best. We can go back together then." Li Shizhen would not miss any opportunity to discuss medical science with Zhao Hao.

After sending Lao Li back, Zhao Hao specially asked Gao Wu to drive to the Bell and Drum Tower, Caijia Lane and other places where he had fought before. It was almost dark before returning to Xiaocangshan.

As soon as the carriage entered the courtyard of Liuyun Mountain Residence, he saw Five Golden Flowers wearing very thin clothes, waiting for him to come back in the cold wind.

"What are you doing? Go in and talk." Zhao Hao was distressed. "Are you imitating Lian Po? You don't look like him." Others were shirtless and carrying whips.

He persuaded the five girls to go into the warm villa. Seeing their faces flushed from the cold, huddled on the sofa like children who were about to be spanked for making a mistake, Mr. Zhao lost his temper no matter how much he disagreed, not to mention that he didn't have much of an opinion.

"Okay, okay, stop looking so sad. Drink some ginger tea quickly to avoid catching a cold." Zhao Hao asked Xiao Yun'er and the other two to pour tea for them.

"Brother, are you really angry?" Li Mingyue said with swollen eyes.

"We started the company just for fun, but I didn't expect to make you so angry." Jiang Xueying wiped her tears.

"I thought you wouldn't come back." Xiao Zhuzi held her heart, feeling sad.

"We were wrong..." Secretary Ma and Qiaoqiao admitted their mistakes sincerely. Their identities were different from those of the three girls. They were already Zhao Hao's people.

"Ah..." Men become soft-hearted when girls cry, let alone five of them crying together. Zhao Hao sighed helplessly, "I'm not angry. This is a good thing."

This is a good thing. First of all, it means that he will have five wives. Secondly, isn't it good enough to have five wives? How many nails can he hammer if he is made of iron? Can he bear more wives?

If we maintain our current state, we can at least have a long week off in the future. If we have to work more than that, we will have to work all year round. Who can bear that?

The good attitude of the old Zhao family allows him to always look at problems positively...

p.s. I'm back now, so I'll update twice today. I'll try to write more tomorrow.