Zhu Youxiao took another careful look at the tax. Not to mention how much money it was, the amount of grain he paid just made his head feel heavy.
Wheat costs 2.89 million dan and rice 14 million dan. Are you sending beggars away?
If Zhu Youxiao remembered correctly, the historical taxation of grain and rice in the sixth year of Tianqi was much greater than this amount. The total amount of rice and wheat alone was more than 26 million shi.
This is a direct difference of 10 million shi in food. What else is he playing with?
Moreover, the national situation in the sixth year of the Apocalypse cannot be compared with the present. At least Liao Shen has not been lost, and the Liao affairs have not completely collapsed.
It's no wonder that Cheng Guoxiang said that he was incompetent to apologize. With such achievements, if it were another person, let alone a face-to-face conversation with the emperor, he would not even dare to show the emperor the account books and food records.
Zhu Youxiao only felt that the food book in his hand was extremely heavy now. He took two deep breaths, adjusted his mentality, and slowly put it back on the imperial case.
Zhu Youxiao glanced at his ministers. At this moment, several ministers lowered their heads and stared at their toes, not daring to move at all.
Especially Cheng Guoxiang, even though it is winter, he is already sweating profusely.
Zhu Youxiao is not Chongzhen. He will only use ministers who are loyal to him and willing to do practical things to express his anger and show his ability.
"It's not Da Situ's fault that the tax revenue is so low. It's because someone is dissatisfied with the court and me and doesn't want me to have an easy time!"
"Since they dare to jump out and make me worry about food and deprive me of a good night's sleep, I won't make it easy for them!"
These people still think it is the Wanli Year and are they playing this trick on themselves?
Zhu Youxiao also knew that what they relied on was nothing more than water transportation.
This was indeed a fatal move, but he was confident and could handle it.
When the Manchus and Qing Dynasties entered the country, the north and the Central Plains were in such a state of ruin that it could be said that nine out of ten houses were empty.
At that time, there was no shortage of cultivated land in the north, but there was no cultivation at all, and because of natural and man-made disasters, what was the difference between this and no cultivation?
At that time, the Manchu Qing Dynasty, not to mention the common people, even their Manchu Eight Banners troops sometimes did not have enough to eat and went to war hungry.
But just like that, the Manchus persisted. Why, because they don't speak much harshly. Although Chief Shunzhi is not very good, he is still normal after all.
The situation in the Manchu and Qing Dynasties at that time was basically similar to that in the late Ming Dynasty. The north had nothing to eat and the south had nothing to eat.
The chief and the wild boar leaders were counting on Jiangnan to provide them with food.
However, these wealthy gentry in the south of the Yangtze River thought that the Manchu and Ming Dynasties were the same, but with a different person as emperor, so they used the same tactics used to deal with the Ming Dynasty court.
As a result, their tax arrears made the chief and the wild boar chief very angry, so they immediately sent a large number of troops from the capital to go south to collect grain.
You don't want to pay taxes and provide food to the north, right? Well, you don't need to transport it, we will get it ourselves.
Until this moment, these big men in Jiangnan had not realized the seriousness of the matter.
They thought that the Manchu chiefs and the Ming emperors were the same, and there was nothing they could do about them, so they were still dreaming about the Spring and Autumn Period and living a life like a master.
As a result, as soon as the soldiers of the Eight Banners arrived, they would raise their swords and drop their swords, and the blood of the landlords and gentry would not be shed.
As the saying goes, evil people will have their own troubles. When scoundrels encounter barbarians who are completely unreasonable, their plots and tricks are like a joke.
After several months of massacres and looting, the whole Jiangnan was in chaos. The big men finally knew the word fear.
When the soldiers of the Eight Banners rode in front of them on horseback, carrying bloody sabers, their hands and feet were so flawless that their heads were almost smashed, let alone kneeling.
Although Chief Shunzhi did not completely cure the disease, he made a huge fortune. Not only did he meet his urgent needs, but he also had food in the national treasury.
Later, when Chief Yongzheng came, he was both civilized and military. Seeing that the trend of tax arrears was about to resurgence, he recruited officials and gentry to pay the grain together, and the wolf-like eyes of the green soldiers finally solved this serious problem.
.
If we don't say that these people are all cheap, as long as they can pay taxes according to the rules, the Ming Dynasty can survive for a few more years.
Even if you don't want to be ruled by the Zhu family anymore, you can completely start over and build a southern defense line along the Yangtze River in Huaidi.
As a result, the soldiers of the Eight Banners had not yet arrived, and the surrender orders were already piled in front of Duduo.
Duduo only led a total of seven or eight thousand Eight Banners soldiers south to conquer the Ming Dynasty. As a result, just after they arrived in Yangzhou, the seven or eight thousand soldiers and horses turned into hundreds of thousands, which was more than ten times more.
In fact, worshiping foreigners and favoring foreigners has existed in China since ancient times.
It started in the Song Dynasty. When the Northern Song Dynasty and the Liao Kingdom became brothers, it has been proved that the glory of the Han and Tang Dynasties has long since dissipated, and one Han acting as the Wuhu has completely become a thing of the past.
When the Southern Song Dynasty surrendered to the Jin Kingdom, the backbone of the Han people was no longer straight. Yue Fei, the only one who wanted to wash away his shame, died tragically in Fengbo Pavilion because of an unwarranted incident.
"After you go back, make a careful calculation and submit the budget for the second year of Tianqi to me as soon as possible!"
"Next year, we will still focus on armaments and civil affairs. We must not save on military expenses, food and salaries in Jiubian Military Town. We should pay as much as we should!"
"Especially for Xiong Tingbi in Liaodong and Yuan Keli in Denglai, the military expenditures of these two towns have the highest priority. The Ministry of Revenue must do its best to meet their needs as much as possible."
"The same goes for Xuanzhen in Mangui. There are nearly 20,000 Mongolian troops there. Their pay must be very high."
"If they cause trouble, the losses and harm caused will not be comparable to hundreds of thousands of taels of silver."
Cheng Guoxiang, who was the Minister of Household Affairs, had a bitter look on his face and immediately settled the account to the Emperor before he could finish his words.
"Your Majesty, I think it is not appropriate to calculate the annual military expenditure on food and salary right now!"
"The Jiubian Army has 600,000 soldiers. In terms of military pay alone, it costs 9 million taels of silver a year, not counting the food needed for food, weapons and horses!" (The term used here is around the 40th year of Wanli.
At that time, the average salary of an ordinary soldier at that time was about fifteen taels of silver. It was just military pay, food and other things were not included!)
"How much income does the imperial court earn per year? Sixteen million shi of grain, which is only over 20 million taels. If half of the money and grain is used to ensure the food and salary of the nine-sided military, then the imperial court will not be able to earn much in a year.
Can’t do it anymore?”
What Cheng Guoxiang said is not unreasonable. There are many places where the country needs money, and it cannot just focus on supporting the army, otherwise it will also lead to chaos.
But Zhu Youxiao thought further than Cheng Guoxiang. In his logical thinking, he only calculated the current taxes as a total.
Zhu Youxiao, however, does not calculate based on how much money is currently in the treasury. He wants to recover the tax and food arrears.