Gao Qiu said: "Your Majesty, I think we should send an army to Jiangling Mansion to stabilize the situation."

Zhao Ning said: "Pass me to order Zhang Bofen to lead three thousand elites to Jiangling Mansion. Anyone who dares to make a move again will be shot without mercy!"

"Yes." Wang Huaiji received the order and immediately went to deliver the message.

Gao Qiu then said: "Your Majesty, this matter may not be simple."

"How do you say this?"

"Jiangling Mansion is now vigorously clearing up wasteland. Countless people are watching there. The several private fights must have been caused by the uneven distribution of the spoils by those behind the scenes."

Gao Qiu is more particular about his choice of words: behind the scenes, the spoils are divided unevenly.

But Zhao Ning saw another point. He asked: "It is really not easy to incite more than 3,000 people to fight privately. This is a rebellion! How did they do it?"

Gao Qiu said: "This may be related to private loan sharking."

"usury?"

"I have occasionally heard others mention that many peasants in the private sector actually owe usury loans from landlords."

Zhao Ning suddenly came to his senses.

The reason may be exactly what Gao Qiu said.

The national conditions of the Song Dynasty were definitely much more complicated than those of the Tang Dynasty.

With the unprecedented prosperity of business and the rise of business groups, in the era of officialdom, officials and businessmen found each other for the first time.

Quan and Qian came to have the greatest cooperation of the century.

More than a hundred years of land annexation and great commercial development gave rise to the emergence of a trinity of loan sharking groups of officials, businessmen and landlords in the Song Dynasty.

The landlords' usury loans to tenants further strengthened the tenants' personal dependence on the landlords.

In this way, landlords can mobilize tenants who owe huge sums of money to work hard for them.

Because of such national conditions, Wang Anshi also launched the "Young Seedlings Law".

There were serious differences between Wang Anshi's philosophy of "making a hole in the country" and Sima Guang's and others' philosophy of "equalizing the rich and the poor".

The failure of Wang Anshi's Qingmiao Law meant the overall failure of the imperial court to control the lending business.

Zhao Ning fell into deep thought. The reasons behind the private fight in Jiangling Mansion were complicated.

Perhaps the most important thing is the landlord's firm control over the tenants' life relationships.

The landlord interest group is the most corrupt and shameless.

They just need to keep buying houses...oh no, keep annexing land and then renting the land to tenants.

They create no value themselves.

Merchant capitalists can also promote commercial prosperity in their greedy pursuit of profits.

But the landlord group is a cancer!

In fact, local private fights often occurred in ancient times.

The reason why Jiangling Mansion has been so frequent recently is because the huge benefits brought by land reclamation have intensified the conflicts between the parties.

It seems that land reform in the south is imperative!

Especially Jinghu Road, Jiangnan Road and Liangzhe Road, these places have extremely rich natural resources, and being controlled by local forces will definitely be a huge loss for the court.

Zhao Ning stopped talking about Jiangling Mansion, he already had plans in mind.

He asked: "I asked you to investigate the situation among the people on South Jingxi Road. How did the investigation go?"

"We have information."

"explain."

"The suffering among the people is real."

"Is what Zhou Jiande, the governor of Xiangyang Prefecture, said true?"

Gao Qiu only gave a vague answer: "The people's livelihood in Xiangyang Prefecture is indeed relatively difficult. In the third year of Jingkang, the Jin army had already reached Xiangyang."

Zhao Ning asked again: "Where is Huainan East Road? How is the situation in Yangzhou?"

"People's livelihood is also very difficult."

"How hard is it?"

Gao Qiu continued: "I sent people to investigate and found that the people can only live hand to mouth, and there are still many families who owe a lot of money."

He took out a report from his sleeve and presented it to Zhao Guan's family.

Zhao Ning took it and read it quickly.

That’s not right!

Huaidong is a wealthy place.

Jiangnan Road is also a wealthy place.

The results of this survey are all very difficult.

Gao Qiu said: "Your Majesty, I believe that there is another reason for the current situation."

"what reason?"

"In the first year of Jingkang, the second year of Jingkang, and the third year of Jingkang, wars raged in Hebei, Hedong, and Jingdong. Many people fled south with their families and their families. A considerable number of people poured into Huaidong, and many people even fled to the south of the Yangtze River and the land of Jinghu.

, which has brought a heavy burden to the local government. I have always governed the country with benevolence and morality, and many local officials still distributed food from the granary to relieve the victims, but the food was limited after all."

"I don't object to the reason you mentioned, but I'm afraid it's not the main reason. You go down first."

"I excuse myself."

After Gao Qiu left, Zhao Ning looked at the map and fell into deep thought.

"Go! Call Mei Zhili!"

Mei Zhili quickly arrived at Wende Hall.

"How much cash income did the imperial court receive last year?"

"Reporting to your Majesty, due to the increase in the sales of Taifu Temple's products and the westward expansion of sea salt from the two Zhejiang provinces, the cash income of the imperial court last year was 38 million guan."

“How many are expected this year?”

"This year, the imperial salt industry's income may return to 7 million guan, and Taifu Temple's income may increase to 4 million guan. Counting other forbidden income, the total cash income can reach 42 million guan."

The salt industry's revenue is 7 million yuan, which is obviously far from reaching the previous standards.

Shenzong Xining's salt income in ten years was 12.03 million yuan.

Of course, salt was very expensive at that time.

Zhao Ning used Jiaochao and sea salt to lower the price of salt in the Song Dynasty.

If the previous prices were followed, the income of the salt industry could reach at least 20 million yuan.

But now that we need to reform and use the knives of interest groups, we must provide full discounts to the people, so that we can have a basic base.

Zhao Ning said: "What is the budget allocation of various regions this year?"

"Due to the popularization of banknotes in Shaanxi, military expenditures only need 6 million guan. Taiyuan in Hedong will invest heavily this year, rising to 6 million guan. Hebei will maintain it at 3 million guan. Li Gang and Li Xianggong have 2 million guan. Dengzhou Prefecture has declared 3 million guan this year. Gyeonggi Road

The garrison has 1 million guan, and the total is 21 million guan."

Zhao Ning said: "More than that!"

"more than?"

"more than."

"I am stupid."

"If Han Shizhong can establish a solid foundation in Liaodong, he will probably consume more than 3 million guan a year, and an additional 1 million guan will be needed, because it will cost money to build cities and immigrate."

Mei Zhili's face turned blue again: "Fortunately, the salary of officials has dropped to 12 million guan. The situation in Hebei and Hedong has also eased. It is estimated that a total of 3 million guan will be invested this year. Counting other administrative expenses of the country, the total will be 42 million guan."

Might just run out."

Mei Zhili's palms were sweating. He felt that no matter how much money he made, it was not enough.

"If there is another war this year and many soldiers are killed, what about the pensions? Are you prepared?"

"This..." Mei Zhili was speechless for a moment. He suddenly thought of something and said, "Your Majesty, I sent someone to check Huaidong's tax revenue. Last year, I owed 2 million yuan. There are also large private salt and tea industries. These are all

Check it carefully!"

"If next year, I mean if, next year I want to send 200,000 troops out of Huizhou, go north to Xingqing Prefecture, and wipe out Xixia in one fell swoop, will there be any military expenditure?"

Mei Zhili's answer was simple: "Your Majesty! This is absolutely impossible! No money!"

"If we destroy a Xixia now, wouldn't we have money?"

"Our army will take over Yinzhou and build a fortified city there, which will require huge sums of money. If Your Majesty takes all of Hengshan, the military expenditures required will be even greater."

"If we can defeat Xixia in one fell swoop, wouldn't we need so much?"

Mei Zhili said: "But what if we don't take it down? We have to leave a backup!"

"Then tell me, if I want to carry out a large-scale summer harvest next year, how much money will it cost?"

"We may need an additional 20 million yuan on this year's basis! But the premise of this war is that the Jin Kingdom cannot interfere, otherwise a war between our country and North Korea may break out."
Chapter completed!