The grassland tribes will always be your most loyal friends, Yuanfu.

We are also willing to join the Datong Party!

The leaders of the grassland tribes could not refuse the conditions proposed by Zhang Haogu. They urgently needed a reliable and powerful ally, and the appearance of Zhang Haogu perfectly satisfied all their needs.

Datong Society always welcomes all friends.

In Chahanhot, Zhang Haogu reached an agreement with various grassland tribes and alliances. Both parties broke arrows and swore an oath, and then held a grand banquet outside the city of Chahanhot.

The young men from various grassland tribes and alliances actively performed themselves, horse racing, riding and shooting, wrestling, etc., showing their bravery in front of the girls.

The children were cheering and playing and running around, and the women were looking at this rare event with smiles.

This event is very important to the Mongolian tribes and alliances. It means that the grassland tribes and alliances will have a reliable support in the increasingly terrifying white-haired wind in the future. The tribe can continue, and no cattle or sheep will freeze to death.

Some people will freeze to death and starve to death.

The old people lamented that they had experienced too many dynasties. Unlike young people and children, they had no feelings about the end of the Tianqi Dynasty. They had experienced wars and chaos, experienced terrible blizzards that drowned everything, and experienced the destruction of humans and animals.

They were all frozen to death and buried under the ice and snow. After experiencing a lack of food, the old, weak, women and children starved to death in the dome.

They know best how precious a good life is and are most grateful for Zhang Haogu's arrival.

The leaders of the various tribes and alliances, these old people, know what is most important better than the young people.

With a smile, Zhang Haogu admired the youthful and powerful competition of the young people from various tribes and alliances. A leader of the tribes and alliances came up and said seriously: "Yuanfu, if there is a war, please inform us.

He is willing to provide Yuan Fu with 3,000 strong young men. They are all proficient in riding and archery and can serve Yuan Fu to death.

And we, our tribe can also provide Yuan Fu with 3,000 good soldiers!"

Our tribe can provide five thousand people, and we can all fight to the death!"

Yuan Fu, our tribe can also die for you!

Zhang Haogu raised his wine bowl to these leaders: "Chiefs, I promise you that if there is a war, I will not forget you.

After staying in Mongolia for more than ten days, Zhang Haogu left Mongolia and returned to Liaodong.

After returning to Liaodong, Zhang Haogu had no time to rest. Various ministries had many matters waiting to be reported to him.

The newly opened farmland in each prefecture and county must be distributed well. The most important thing for the people is land and food. At this point, it must be ensured that the fields are allocated to the hands of the people, so that the people can farm the land in a down-to-earth manner.

In the Qinzheng Hall, Zhang Haogu was chatting with Zhou Jinyong, the director-general of the Ministry of Agriculture, about the issue of opening up new farmland in the three provinces. Yuan Fu was assured that we are fully prepared in this regard, and the local government is fully prepared to deal with various problems."

Zhou Jinyong said.

After Zhou Jinyong left, Huang Zongxi came in again and said Yuan Fu, Chief Cui had arrived.

Oh, please come in quickly." Zhang Haogu said, taking out the brochure submitted by the Ministry of Commerce and starting to read it.

Yuanfu, I'm here." Cui Chengxiu said with a smile.

Oh, our President Cui is in a good mood. This is a good thing." Zhang Haogu also laughed, and Cui Chengxiu said: "Thanks to Chong's help. If he hadn't restored the sea ban, our current business might not be as good as it is.

OK."

Zhang Haogu nodded: "Now not only businessmen from the south are doing business with us, but also businessmen from Southeast Asian and Western countries come to do business. With the help of these businessmen, our industrial construction is now faster."

This is good news. All ministries must negotiate and properly treat these businessmen who have come all the way. The reason why people can come to us to do business at this time is because of their trust in us.

We are now a big party, currently the ruling party in the five northern provinces and Japan, and will later be the ruling party in the entire 24 provinces of the Ming Dynasty.

"So our credibility is very important. We must be honest, fair and impartial."

Cui Chengxiu smiled and said: "Yuanfu, don't worry, we are much better than the imperial court in this regard."

The imperial court forced people to buy and sell, and also bullied overseas merchants to ask for bribes, withhold goods, and even put merchants in jail to eat up their property. Those corrupt officials have completely ruined the credibility of the imperial court."

The officials of the Chongzhen Dynasty were not just like this. In fact, what Cui Chengxiu said was trivial.

The real situation is that there is nothing that those corrupt officials dare not do. Extortion and extortion are nothing, asking for bribes is nothing, and imprisoning businessmen on trumped-up charges for embezzling goods and shops is nothing. These are all trivial matters.

Nowadays these people really have no scruples.

In the court, the nobles and the Donglin Party officials protected each other and concealed each other. Although Wei Zhongxian still controlled the Dongchang, the Jin Yiwei had been infiltrated by the Donglin Party members and the nobles, and was no longer the emperor's eyes and ears.

Even in Dongchang, Wei Zhongxian now allows others to control him in order to please Chongzhen and enjoy his old age, ignoring his own rights which are getting less and less.

Without Dongchang and Jinyiwei as his eyes and ears, all Chongzhen knew about the outside world was the official memorials and court meetings. But what practical things were there in the memorials and court meetings?

If the imperial meeting was really useful, the Tianqi Dynasty would not abolish the outer dynasty and use the inner dynasty to decide military and national affairs.

If the Donglin Party members' memorial was credible, there wouldn't be so much turmoil and chaos in the world.

From the beginning of the third year of Chongzhen to the end of the fourth year of Chongzhen, in the past two years, the Chongzhen Dynasty was experiencing more and more turmoil. Taxes in various places were getting smaller and smaller, and the people became more and more intolerable. There were frequent uprisings in various places, but these news were suppressed.

, Zhu Youjian only heard some rumors, but had no idea what the chaos was like outside.

The Donglin Party members and nobles took this opportunity to encroach on acres of land and encircle one piece of fertile land in the local area.

Take Wen Tiren, the current cabinet bachelor and minister of the Ministry of Rites, as an example. As the powerful cabinet elder who controls the imperial examination, the Wen family already has 300,000 acres of fertile land in Wen Tiren’s hometown of Huzhou!

As for money and stores, these have not yet been taken into consideration.

The Wen family's caravan not only did business all over the south, but even went to sea to Liaodong, Nanyang, and Japan despite the sea restrictions.

As for the others, Shi Fenglai, the Minister of Hubu, and Yang Changsi, the Minister of Industry, are almost in the same situation.

If the cabinet ministers wantonly enclose land in their hometowns, other officials will naturally follow suit and seize acres of land one by one without restraint.

The land originally distributed to the people by the Tianqi Dynasty was now completely occupied by these corrupt officials. They also took advantage of the little value left in the hands of the people.

Because the acres of land were occupied by landlords, gentry and officials, there were fewer and fewer acres that could pay taxes, and a large number of people were reduced to small households. The peasants were unable to afford the increasingly heavy taxes. However, the exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes of the Chongzhen Dynasty were getting worse day by day.

It was heavy, but the taxes the court could collect were getting less and less.

The court could not collect taxes. Emperor Chongzhen saw that the court's tax revenue was getting less and less. In the first year of Chongzhen, there was still more than 40 million taels. However, in the second year of Chongzhen, it was less than 20 million taels. By the third year of Chongzhen, there were only eight million taels left.

two.

This drop in taxes made Emperor Chongzhen wonder what happened to the Ming Dynasty. Otherwise, why were there such high taxes two years ago, and why are there so few left now?

Is Daming out of money?

No, the Ming Dynasty had money, but the people of the Ming Dynasty had no money. The money was in the hands of the Ming Dynasty officials and the landlords and gentry.

These noble officials and nobles did not give any money they earned from doing business with their caravans to the court. Each of their families had a lot of fertile land, but they still did not have to bear a penny of taxes.

They became rich, but ordinary merchants and people suffered misery. All kinds of taxes were imposed, whether they were staying in a shop to eat, or doing business while walking, there was nothing that could not be taxed.

However, all kinds of taxes went up, but they never reached the hands of the court.

This forced Chongzhen to continue to collect taxes. Otherwise, how could he support the world's noble princes and officials with millions of taels of silver every year? The Ming Dynasty required a large amount of money to operate every year.

People everywhere are forced to suffer miserably due to exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes. When the yamen cannot collect the money, they cooperate with the local gangsters and give these local gangsters official status and let them collect taxes. Anyway, the government only needs the stipulated amount, and the extra money

The local ruffians can be divided into 30-70 with the adults.

This made the local gangsters very excited. They could get an official position for free and still make money. Naturally, these local gangsters wanted to extort money from ordinary people. Each store had to pay various protection fees, otherwise the smashing would be light.

, I burned down your store and didn’t even bother to explain it.

Naturally, the Yamen took half of the taxes collected by these local ruffians, and handed over the rest. Those handed over had to be collected at each level, and in the end, when it was in the hands of Chongzhen, the ten taels of silver were only one tael.

As for the extra money collected, the local government will take 70% of it, leaving only 30% for the local ruffians as hard money.

Of course, the risk of gangsters is also very high. Once the local people can't stand it anymore, the yamen will directly arrest this group of gangsters and put them in prison, and then another group of gangsters will continue to come.

Taxes have to be collected anyway.

So in the two years from the third year of Chongzhen to the fourth year of Chongzhen, more and more people rebelled in various places, and there were also more and more bandits and robbers.

Many of them were desperate people who were forced to rebel and become bandits. Those whose families were ruined by corrupt officials and landlords and gentry have basically become bandits and bandits.

The world of the Ming Dynasty has been in chaos, but there are more and more painted boats on the Qinhuai River. Suzhou, Hangzhou, Jinling, and other prosperous places are still prosperous. Official ladies, noble ladies, and gentry students still travel around and recite poems.

Fu, enjoy lanterns and guess riddles.

The more turbulent the local area, the more onerous the levies and miscellaneous taxes, and the more prosperous some places and industries become. It is unknown how many good families were sold to brothels and painted boats, and how many people were sent to prisons and mines.

The people's resentment towards the imperial court is getting heavier and heavier, and the powder keg under the Ming Dynasty's butt is getting bigger and bigger. Now they are just waiting for a spark to detonate it all.

This Mars will arrive soon.

In the fifth year of Chongzhen (AD 1637), there was a severe drought in Gansu and Shaanxi.

There are no roosters crowing for thousands of miles, bones are exposed in the wild, people are displaced, people are resentful, and rebels are everywhere.

This severe drought affected the three northwest provinces, and countless people suffered. When Emperor Chongzhen heard the news, he was completely confused: There was a severe drought in Gansu and Shaanxi, and millions of people were displaced. How could it be so serious this early in the morning?"

Qian Qianyi said: "Your Majesty, the situation is very serious. Millions of people in the northwest have already exchanged their children for food. If so many people remain hungry, the imperial court will be in danger."

Zhu Youjian was not really a fool. He also knew that he could not really keep the people hungry. However, the tax revenue in the four years of Chongzhen was only 6 million taels. Excluding various expenses, the court still had debts of more than 2 million taels. Zhu Youjian

It’s difficult now too.

Please ask Your Majesty to send in help to provide disaster relief!" Qian Qianyi said.

Zhu Youjian looked at the other cabinet ministers and found that everyone was looking at him expectantly. Zhu Youjian knew that he could not be stingy at this time. He counted the money in his inner shelf and asked: "The court needs it."

How much money is needed for disaster relief?

Shi Fenglai, the Minister of Household Affairs, said: At least three million taels!"

Three million taels!" Zhu Youjian took a breath. This is too much!

Qian Qianyi said: "Three million taels is already an extremely large number. When this amount of money reaches the disaster area, it is far from enough for the millions of victims."

Wen Tiren stood up at this time and said with dignity and dignity: "Your Majesty, as a cabinet bachelor, I am willing to donate this year's salary to support the northwest!"

Shi Fenglai followed up and said, "I am also willing to donate this year's salary to support the northwest!"

Qian Qianyi looked at Wen Tiren and Shi Fenglai with contempt in his eyes. Your annual salary is only a few taels of silver. How much money and acres of food have you embezzled over the years?

Now when the imperial court encounters a natural disaster, you donate one year's salary. Where do you send the beggars?

However, Zhu Youjian was so moved that he highly praised Wen Tiren and Shi Fenglai for their political consciousness and benevolence in caring for the country and the people, and praised them highly at the court meeting.

Upon seeing this, all civil and military officials donated their salaries to express their willingness to contribute to the northwest.

At the same time, Shi Fenglai also hoped that Zhu Youjian would issue an edict to call on gentry from all over the country to donate money and food to support the northwest. Zhu Youjian also

agreed.

Subsequently, the imperial court issued an edict requiring all provinces to donate designated amounts of money and food to support the northwest.

When the governors of each province saw the share allocated by the imperial court, they smiled and added 30% to the quota and handed it over to the following prefectures and counties.

Each prefecture and county added another 20% and handed it over to the gentry and ruffians below to help fulfill the court's requirements.

So a matter of voluntary donation was turned into a designated showdown by the cabinet, and the amount of the designated showdown had been doubled by the prefectures and counties. In the end, most of this amount fell on ordinary people and ordinary businessmen.

But what kind of business can ordinary businessmen do in recent years?

Due to all kinds of exorbitant taxes and extortion, some businessmen have become impoverished, and the people are even more impoverished. The walls of their houses are all good, at least they still have four walls and a thatched roof.

But the local yamen must complete the apportionment regardless of the court's requirements!

Amid the boiling public dissatisfaction and widespread mourning, local government offices forcibly squeezed out the last bits of bone marrow and blood from businessmen and common people to complete the apportionment quota required by the imperial court.

After the money arrived at the court, Shi Fenglai and Wen Tiren excitedly expressed to Zhu Youjian: "Your Majesty, you are so happy!"

When the gentry from all over the country learned about the severe drought in the northwest and His Majesty's painstaking efforts, they enthusiastically donated. The provincial governments donated a total of five million taels of silver and a large amount of grain.

"Including the three million taels from the imperial court and the 150,000 taels donated by hundreds of officials in the capital, the total is 8,150,000 taels, which is enough to solve the urgent needs of the three northwest provinces!"

Zhu Youjian was very pleased when he heard that the gentry from all over the country could donate five million taels of silver, which shows that the Ming Dynasty is still rich, and hiding wealth among the people is also a good thing.

At the moment, he doesn't care about why last year's tax revenue was only six million taels. He now wants to solve the drought in the northwest as soon as possible.

Therefore, Zhu Youjian ordered the cabinet to quickly solve the problem of severe drought in the northwest.

But the eight million taels of silver were at a standstill in the cabinet.

, now that there is a major disaster in the northwest, money is indeed needed, but eight million taels of silver sent to the northwest is too much. It is inevitable that there will be corruption in the local area, so it is better to send three million, and the remaining five million will be placed in the Ministry of Household Affairs

, it’s also easy to deal with other things.

Shi Fenglai said this.

As for other things, everyone also knows in their hearts that they are nothing more than the increasingly violent civil unrest and rebellion in various places. These naturally require large armies to suppress them. But now if you want to mobilize the Qiu Ba men, you can't do it without real money.

The 200,000 new troops in North and South Zhili have been in trouble many times. If there is no more money to be distributed, these people will probably be armed to demand wages.

Liu Hongxun, the 200,000 new troops from the North and South Zhili, said: "There are still 180,000 young men recruited, but they are waiting for money.

Wen Tiren added: "There are also various expenses of the imperial court that require money."

If everyone calculates this, more than two million taels of five million taels of silver will be sent out, but in the end there will be more than two million taels left, which is enough to solve many problems.

So everyone in the cabinet reached an agreement to spend three million taels of silver to buy grain and send it to the northwest for disaster relief.

But the elders in the cabinet obviously overestimated the consciousness of the governors in the northwest. When they learned that the imperial court had sent three million taels of grain, the governors in the northwest were extremely happy.

As soon as the imperial food arrived, they withheld it.

Soon, they conveyed the good news to the prefects in various places, and said that the food would be distributed immediately, and that all localities must properly dispose of the disaster relief food.

The prefects in various places were also very aware. When the grain was distributed to them, they immediately sold it to the gentry and nobles at a high price. Then they kept 20% of the money and sent the rest back to the governors and governors.

The governors and governors were naturally extremely satisfied. After three million taels of grain, they still had more than two million taels in their hands. This amount of money was enough to do many things.

Soon these governors and governors sent part of the money to the capital and handed it over to the elders, and the rest was transferred back to their hometowns to purchase more land. As for the people, what would they do?

This is easy to handle. Although there is not much food left, there is still chaff.

Bran is a good thing

, there are many governors, governors, governors, and county magistrates than bark, and they used a small amount of money to buy a large amount of chaff, mixed with bark, leaves, and weeds, and distributed it as disaster relief food. Of course, these disaster relief food also cost the people.

Yes, there is no such thing as free disaster relief food from the imperial court.

The people in the northwest couldn't stand the cannibalism so blatantly committed by the local government.
Chapter completed!