Chapter 1125 1216 The Ming Population Puzzle

Chapter 1125 1216 The Ming Population Puzzle

"Well, since they can't unite to fight against Oda Nobunaga, then let those daimyos fight among themselves, which will have the same effect. Anyway, they are all dead Japanese people."

Wei Guangde immediately adjusted his thinking and spoke to Liu Shouyou.

Knowing that the Japanese daimyos are now afraid of Oda Nobunaga, it means that Oda Nobunaga has actually taken control of Japan.

Although, some people think that Japan is still in the era of daimyos' separatist rule at this time, Oda Nobunaga cannot be regarded as a real unification, because many daimyos have not chosen to surrender to him.

And Toyotomi Hideyoshi was different afterwards. Almost all Japanese daimyos knelt before him, and that was called unification of Japan.

From the battle between the Otomo family and the Shimazu family in Satsuma, it can be seen that they did not have the courage to resist Oda Nobunaga, but they still had the confidence to fight each other.

Anyway, the ultimate goal is to weaken Japan, so does it matter who you fight with?

It seems that there is no difference.

"Deliver the message to the people sent out, and try to make the Japanese civil strife as much as possible, and let those daimyos fight each other.

Since they dare not fight against Oda Nobunaga, let them fight each other, and we should also try the king of Japan.

You know the story of the belt edict, if we can instigate the king of Japan to participate"

Although later generations generally call him the emperor, this is the Ming Empire, and there can only be one emperor, that is, His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

The Japanese emperor, from beginning to end, can only be called the king of Japan in the official documents of the Ming Dynasty.

To make Japan really chaotic, we must muddy the water.

And to make Japan chaotic from bottom to top, we have to start from the nominal king of Japan.

"Oh, I understand."

Liu Shouyou was slightly stunned for a moment, and then he understood what Wei Guangde meant. This was to make Japan chaotic. Even if it was not against Oda Nobunaga, it was necessary to let those daimyos fight each other and kill more Japanese people.

But it's okay, anyway, it's the Japanese who died. It's better to let these pirates die in the civil war than to cross the ocean to cause trouble to the Ming Dynasty.

"By the way, Wei Ge Lao, the information about the silver mines in Japan that you were supposed to collect before has been sent to me this time and before. I really don't know if I don't check it out. There are so many mines in Japan, and the output is still very large."

At this time, Liu Shouyou seemed to have just remembered and continued to report.

"Tell me about it."

Wei Guangde became interested. He only knew that the output of Iwami Silver Mine in Japan was terrifying. He also said that Japan had a large number of gold and silver mines, and the annual output of gold and silver was very large, but he didn't know more specifics.

At the beginning, he mentioned the silver mines in Japan in order to arouse the interest of the Ming Dynasty in Japan, so as not to ignore it because it was a remote place.

After knowing the mineral deposits in Japan, he believed that there would be countless people in the Ming Dynasty court who were interested in it. At that time, he didn't need to show up, and someone would have ideas about Japan and promote the matter of sending troops to Japan.

The Ming Dynasty was too short of money, otherwise Emperor Wanli would not have sent people to Luzon to look for gold and silver mines.

If Emperor Wanli knew that the Japanese country they were fighting had these mineral deposits, I am afraid that the Korean War would not end so easily.

At that time, it would not be Toyotomi Hideyoshi who expanded the war, but the Ming Dynasty who took the initiative to expand the war and directly burned the war to Japan.

At least, the Ming army has proved with its strength that they can defeat the Japanese army.

To attack the Japanese mainland, it is just to continue to spend money and throw troops in, which is not difficult at all.

Hearing Wei Guangde's question, Liu Shouyou was naturally happy to tell.

To be honest, when he saw these materials at the beginning, he was also shocked. He never expected that the mineral deposits in Japan were so rich. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is the gold of the border.

"The gold and silver mines in Japan are mainly distributed along the coast of Japan and on nearby islands, and the amount that can be mined is astonishingly large.

The largest silver mine in Japan is now called Iwami Silver Mine, located on Iwami Island. It was discovered and cultivated fifty years ago, with an annual output of up to one million taels of silver and tens of thousands of taels of gold.

According to our people, as long as there are enough laborers there, the output can continue to increase.

And according to the information they have inquired, the mineral deposits that have been confirmed in Iwami Silver Mine are enough to support the current output of one million taels for more than a hundred years.

That is a huge mineral deposit of hundreds of millions of taels of silver and millions of taels of gold."

Liu Shouyou directly threw a big bomb to Wei Guangde, and he was shocked when he saw it at the beginning.

Just kidding, such a small island with no birds is actually so valuable, it is really eye-opening.

"Secondly, there is the Sado Gold Mine, which also produces nearly one million taels of silver per year. It is said that the scale may be smaller than that of Iwami Silver Mine, but the gold content is higher and the output is not cheap.

There are many such silver mines in other parts of Japan, but the scale is not so large, but many of them produce more than 100,000 or 200,000 taels of silver per year. Because there are too many, the mining time is also different, especially some old mines are on the verge of exhaustion, which is really difficult to count.

However, I still asked them to try their best to find all these mines in Japan. Before the civil war in Japan, the huge military expenditures of those daimyo relied on these mines to maintain, so it was very difficult to find out the news.

These news are all what our Jinyiwei spies have learned from the outside. The real situation is probably only known by the owners of those mines and those daimyo."

After Liu Shouyou finished speaking, he looked at Wei Guangde with a sharp gaze, wondering how surprised Wei Ge Lao would be.

Think about it, according to the information we have now, the annual silver production in Japan is probably more than the annual income of the Ming Empire.

According to his current estimate, at least three million taels of silver can be mined every year.

Nowadays, the Ming Dynasty’s annual annual income is only this amount. Is it not scary?

"What is the population of Japan? Have you checked it?"

Wei Guangde asked casually.

In fact, he also knew that even the emperor or shogun of the Japanese country was afraid that they could not tell the number of people, just like the Ming Emperor was afraid that he did not know how many his subjects were.

The Ministry of Accounts can come up with a number, but everyone knows how watery this number is.

"this."

Did Liu Shou see Wei Guangde's surprised expression? Instead, he was confused by Wei Guangde's continuous questions.

"I know that no one may know the exact number, not even their king."

Wei Guangde said to relieve Liu Shouyou's embarrassment, "I just want a rough number. It may not be accurate. How many million or tens of millions is important."

If Wei Guangde wants to know the population of Japan, he is actually estimating the approximate number of mobilization troops in Japan.

It is obviously inaccurate to simply think that the total number of troops that Japan can mobilize is hundreds of thousands. Just because Toyotomi Hideyoshi sent hundreds of thousands of troops to Korea, it does not mean that Japan can only mobilize so many people. According to Wei Guangde's impression, it seems that the Japanese country dared to challenge the Ming Dynasty and sent troops to North Korea because its small territory carried too many people, reportedly tens of millions, which made it difficult for the Japanese country to survive, so it chose to expand outward.

You know, Ming Dynasty has a huge land and a population of 60 million.

The most adjacent land on the Korean Peninsula naturally became a delicacy in the eyes of the Japanese masters.

The actual situation is also the same. Without the intervention of the Ming Dynasty, Korea would have become the territory of the Japanese state in the seventeenth century, because they could not resist the attack of hundreds of thousands of Japanese troops.

Liu Shouyou still did not dare to answer Wei Guangde's question, so he could only whisper: "I would like to tell Mr. Wei Ge, regarding the population of Japan, there are no figures reported here, so it is really difficult to answer."

Wei Guangde glanced at Liu Shouyou and knew that it was not a lie, so he nodded and said with a smile: "I see, the Japanese country's information is important. If the numbers I asked for at the beginning have the results, regardless of the water content, report them to me first." ’

"yes."

Liu Shouyou answered immediately.

"By the way, does Jin Yiwei have the population figures of our Ming Dynasty?"

Wei Guangde had a sudden idea and asked again.

At first, he thought Liu Shou was hesitant because he was too sensitive about population figures and dared not answer.

In fact, the population of the Ming Dynasty in history has always been a mystery. No one can explain it clearly. It can only be said to be very metaphysical.

Wei Guangde could also see the number reported by the Ministry of Household Affairs at the end of each year, which was 60 million, a very ridiculous number.

The Ming Dynasty is a historical dynasty with many unsolved mysteries, such as the mystery of Emperor Jianwen's life and death, the mystery of Ming Renzong's sudden collapse, the mystery of Ming Guangzong's mysterious death, and the mystery of the lost originals of "Yongle Dadian" and "Jin Ping Mei" The mystery of the author, and even the big explosion of Wanggong Factory during the Tianqi Period, which is also known as one of the "three natural mysteries of the world".

But in terms of the scale, duration and impact of the mystery, the biggest mystery of the Ming Dynasty is the mystery of its true population.

Some people from the Ming Dynasty said that the official total population was more than 90 million less than the real total population.

Among Chinese and foreign scholars who have studied the history of the Ming Dynasty in modern times, some say that the number of people missing from official statistics is at least 100 million, and bolder estimates show that nearly 300 million people were in illegal households at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, there are various signs that during the Ming Dynasty for more than two hundred years, there was always a huge population like "ghosts", outside the official statistics of the imperial court.

If we can solve the mystery of the population in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, we may be able to unravel the truth about the decline of the Ming Empire and the miraculous population increase in the Qing Dynasty.

According to the official data of the Ming Dynasty, the "Records of the Ming Dynasty", the total population was 59.87 million in the 14th year of Hongwu (1381) in the early Ming Dynasty, and 4680 in the first year of Zhengde (1506). Thousands of people.

In other words, according to the statistics of the Ministry of Household Affairs, the population change from the early to the mid-Ming Dynasty showed a negative population growth of more than 13.07 million.

Such a population change trajectory is unconvincing, and people find no reason to believe that this is the true ending of the historical development of the Ming Dynasty.

More importantly, there are many official population records in the "Records of the Ming Dynasty" that are extremely contrary to human cognition. The most prominent one is the super level of "population reduction" in the Ming Dynasty.

The peak population of the Ming Dynasty recorded in "Records of the Ming Dynasty" was 71.85 million in the 15th year of Chenghua (1479), and the population bottom was 46.8 million in the first year of Zhengde (1506).

You know, we had just experienced the so-called Hongzhi ZTE.

These two sets of official data show a cruel situation. The Ming Dynasty saw a crazy decrease of more than 25 million people in just 27 years, a decrease of more than 34%.

Is this rapid population decline consistent with common sense?

However, the most incredible thing is that the pinnacle achievement of "population reduction" in the Ming Dynasty seems to be the final work of Hongzhi Zhongxing, because the total population recorded in the "Ming Dynasty Records" in the seventeenth year of Hongzhi (1504) was 60.15 million , this number was greatly reduced to 46.8 million in the first year of Zhengde (1506) two years later.

That is to say, among the population reduction of more than 25 million in 27 years, more than 13.35 million people disappeared in the last two years of the Hongzhi era.

To achieve a drastic population reduction of more than 13.35 million in two years, even without considering the birth of the population, a population mortality rate of more than 22% is required, but such a high mortality rate is basically impossible under natural conditions.

During these 27 years, the Ming Dynasty did not suffer from large-scale famine or epidemics, nor did it suffer from large-scale executions or wars. Under such circumstances, it is reasonable for the population development trend to show growth, and there is absolutely no possibility of large-scale reduction.

In fact, the mystery of the population of the Ming Dynasty was not only known by Wei Guangde, but also by Zhang Juzheng, and even by the princes and ministers of the court.

It is no wonder that many scholars at home and abroad in later generations like to study the population growth rate of ancient China. They are not for studying the fertility of the Chinese, but for trying to solve the mystery of the population of the Ming Dynasty.

According to the comparison of population changes in multiple dynasties, and the more convincing one, in the 55th year of Qianlong, that is, 1790, China's total population reached 301 million, which is more than a hundred years of China's population change.

Most people tend to think that even in the late Ming Dynasty, it should be more than 200 million, and this is still taking into account the sharp decline in population caused by war.

That is, at the beginning of the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, China should still have 200 million people. After more than a hundred years of war and development, it can break through the 300 million mark during the Qianlong period.

In fact, Wei Guangde has his own opinion. According to the situation of Bengshanbao, he knows that at least half of the population of the Ming Dynasty has been concealed.

This happened under the premise that his father was more conservative and prudent, and in other places where officials and gentry were more closely connected, the number was even greater.

The population of the Ming Dynasty is conservatively estimated to be 100 million to 150 million now, and the reason why there is only 60 million people in the Ministry of Households is that it actually only represents the number of people who pay taxes to the court.

That is, taxpayers.

Yes, the Ming Dynasty only counted the number of taxpayers, and those who were not in the black household did not pay taxes, so they were not counted.

In fact, according to the population calculation, even if Zhu Yuanzhang's policy of not increasing taxes was followed, the per capita head tax would be reduced by at least 60%.

"Haven't you Jinyiwei calculated the numbers on the white books?"

Wei Guangde suddenly asked.

The court only had the yellow book, but Jinyiwei had a way to get the white book from the local government.

Perhaps, only the white book can truly reflect the population data of the Ming Dynasty. After all, it is impossible to hide from the world. Local people, especially those village elders, will know which people are not on the household registration.

Liu Shouyou was still silent and did not say anything.

"Alas."

Wei Guangde sighed, knowing that Liu Shouyou had concerns, and there were too many involved, even if Zhang Juzheng showed signs of reform.

"Quietly, send someone to check the local white books. I want to know how many people there are in the Ming Dynasty?"

Wei Guangde ordered softly.

Although he knew that this number might not be accurate, it was better than looking at the things in the Ministry of Households.