Along the stone path, Xiao Ming and Fei Ji arrived at the imperial harem.
This was where he and his consorts lived. To the right of the imperial harem was the Imperial Household Department, where the eunuchs handled palace affairs.
Fei Ji followed behind Xiao Ming, a hint of worry in his eyes. “I just worry that this will cause common people to neglect farming, after all, agriculture is the foundation of the nation.”
Xiao Ming chuckled upon hearing this. He said to Fei Ji, “Elder Fei worries unnecessarily. The Great Yu Empire’s grain production will not decrease. These common people heading to Qingzhou Province are those who dislike farming; otherwise, why would they abandon their land and go to Qingzhou Province? As for the common people rooted in the land, they will not leave.”
After a moment of thought, he continued, “Moreover, the Great Yu Empire now possesses three territories overseas: Ryukyu, the Sanshan Kingdom, and the two cities in Goryeo. Now, these three places can provide the Great Yu Empire with a good deal of grain every year. The only problem is how to enable them to produce more grain with less manpower.”
“Your Majesty is absolutely right. The Sanshan Kingdom recently transported five hundred thousand shi of grain, and Ryukyu brought two hundred thousand shi of grain. This has indeed alleviated the current grain shortage. According to Li Kaiyuan, he is also preparing to exchange industrial products for grain in Goryeo. If that is the case, the grain supply will be continuous,” Fei Ji said, suddenly becoming happy as he spoke.
The two walked along the stone path to the imperial garden, stopping to rest at a pavilion. Xiao Ming said, “My purpose is to exchange the Great Yu Empire’s industrial products for grain and other raw materials. Otherwise, what is the meaning of the Great Yu Empire developing industry? However, I also understand that the Great Yu Empire has a large population and needs a lot of grain. The grain obtained through exchange is always insufficient, so I plan to promote plantations in Qingzhou Province.”
Fei Ji naturally understood what a plantation was. He said, “Plantations require a large number of slaves. Where will these slaves come from?”
“Naturally, from war.”
Xiao Ming’s expression was serious. One of the current contradictions in the development of industry and commerce was how to transform the Great Yu Empire from an agrarian society to an industrial society.
Britain back then achieved this through the Enclosure Movement, causing farmers to lose their land and thus being forced to enter cities and become workers.
However, while this method worked in Britain, it could not be used in the Great Yu Empire, because the common people of the Great Yu Empire had too strong a connection to their land. If he acted recklessly, it would surely lead to chaos.
Moreover, the Great Yu Empire was not like Britain, with a dense population and scarce land, making it easy to successfully enclose land. On the contrary, because merchants had too many choices of barren land, they would not enclose the common people’s land but would only choose inexpensive barren land.
Therefore, in his view, the Great Yu Empire needed a development path suitable for itself, rather than emulating Britain.
Precisely because of this, there was the policy of free population movement. He intended to use the wages from workshops to attract the common people from the land to the workshops.
And to compensate for the agricultural losses caused by common people entering workshops, he would encourage common people to lease, or even purchase, others’ abandoned land for cultivation. This way, a large amount of idle land could form small slave plantations.
“No wonder Your Majesty wants to attack the Golden Tent Khanate. When it comes to slaves, no country’s slaves can compare to the Golden Tent Khanate’s,” Fei Ji said.
The Golden Tent Khanate, through years of warfare, had acquired a large number of slaves from conquered nations. These slaves continuously multiplied within the Golden Tent Khanate, providing a constant supply of slaves.
Some officials even jokingly referred to the Golden Tent Khanate’s Great Khan as the largest slave owner.
“The Golden Tent Khanate is only one of them. Goryeo and Japan can also provide slaves to the Great Yu Empire in the future, but only if I can make them submit to the Great Yu Empire’s feet,” Xiao Ming said calmly.
Fei Ji looked at Xiao Ming. In Xiao Ming’s eyes, he saw grand ambition. In the history of the Great Yu Empire, no emperor had ever thought of conquering Japan.
Even Great Ancestor Xiao Yuanzhi once designated Japan as a country not to be conquered. This was not because Xiao Yuanzhi feared Japan, but because he truly looked down on Japan’s barren land, feeling that conquering such a country held no real benefit.
After casually chatting with Fei Ji about the state affairs the Great Yu Empire would need to implement in the future, he rose and continued to stroll through the imperial palace for a while.
Behind the imperial garden were the consorts’ residences. Unlike the grandeur of the front, this area emphasized delicacy and tranquility. Ponds, rockeries, plants, and so on formed beautiful gardens.
After a general tour of his imperial palace, he and Fei Ji left the imperial palace together.
There were still many things to do today. This inspection of the imperial palace was merely a momentary whim. The fundamental matters were what he discussed with Fei Ji.
In addition to this, he also discussed with Fei Ji the decree to encourage childbirth on the way.
In fact, after a long period of internal strife, the Great Yu Empire’s population was probably less than one hundred million, after all, this number was the official figure from the Great Yu Empire’s prosperous era.
And after experiencing the loss of the Yan-Yun Sixteen Prefectures, the rebellion of the feudal lords, the Jizhou drought, and the Bashu massacres, he believed that a population of around eighty million for the Great Yu Empire would be good, and this population was mainly concentrated south of the Yangtze River.
In this era lacking machinery, population was labor. Large populations were needed to accomplish great things. And most importantly, he needed population for immigration to colonies.
Only in this way could he truly control the colonies. Otherwise, colonies with only armies and no immigrants would sooner or later gain independence due to national revival movements. After all, that’s how history unfolded.
Discussing these long-term strategies, Fei Ji always gave a wry smile. Now, he found Xiao Ming’s bizarre ideas increasingly unfathomable.
The time spent inspecting the imperial palace did not delay the morning court session. Xiao Ming and Fei Ji arrived in the council hall before the scheduled time.
Seated on the dragon throne, Xiao Ming directly informed the ministers of the content he had discussed with Fei Ji.
“Exemption from taxes for having more children?” Pang Yukun was also greatly surprised.
Fei Ji had already been persuaded by Xiao Ming in the carriage. At this point, he said, “Your Majesty is far-sighted. Encouraging the common people to have more children is a century-long plan. There is strength in numbers.”
Pang Yukun looked at Fei Ji suspiciously. If it had been before, Fei Ji would surely have been the first to object. Now, he was strongly supportive.
Thinking of this, he did not rush to object, but instead waited for Xiao Ming’s explanation.
“Senior Grand Secretary Pang, rest assured. This tax exemption is not a complete exemption, but a partial one, merely to encourage childbirth,” Xiao Ming said with a smile.
Then he elaborated on his ideas to the ministers. The ministers listened and gradually understood.
Simply put, the world now had few people and much land. Not taking advantage of this to seize more land would be too much of a disservice to his knowledge from later generations.
It was precisely because of Europe’s expansion during the Age of Exploration that there were so many white countries in modern times. He did not want history to repeat itself.
The novel has already been fully translated up to the final chapter. You can access it on my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/c/caleredhair