Just as Du Yinxi was about to turn around and leave, he was stopped by Chongzhen again.
"Qing Du, please stay." Chongzhen waved, "I forgot one more thing."
Du Yinxi turned around quickly and bowed his head to the ground, waiting for Chongzhen to come and ask him.
Chongzhen said: "Is it going well for Qing Du to farm in Xuzhou? Are there any difficulties?"
Chongzhen was really incompetent as a leader. He only gave Du Yinxi the title of Farming Censor. In addition, he didn't even give him a staff member or a penny of funding.
It's been more than a month now, and I didn't think of asking about it.
"No." Du Yinxi shook his head and said, "It went very smoothly and there were no difficulties."
In fact, Du Yinxi's farming in Xuzhou was not as smooth as he said. He still encountered many difficulties in the process, but they were all solved by Du Yinxi, so he does not want to say more.
Du Yinxi has such an upright character.
I don’t want to show my credit for my achievements, and I don’t want to complain when I encounter difficulties.
Unless he encounters a problem that he really can't solve, he will ask for help.
For example, regarding the issue of grain supply, this was beyond his ability, so he could only contact Chongzhen.
Du Yinxi didn't want to say more, so Chongzhen could only ask himself: "Let me tell you directly, how many acres of wasteland have you cultivated so far?"
Xuzhou also suffered from repeated wars, and most of its fertile farmland was left uncultivated.
When Chongzhen first arrived in Xuzhou, he could hardly see any crops.
Du Yinxi said without thinking: "Most of the wasteland in Xuzhou has been re-cultivated. The specific number of acres has not yet been calculated, but I roughly estimate that it should be four million acres."
"Four million acres?" Chongzhen couldn't help being stunned when he heard this.
To be honest, this was really beyond his expectation.
Based on four million acres, even if one acre produces 1.5 dan, this year’s autumn grain will be 6 million dan!
Moreover, it is a farmland. The land rent in a farmland is neither 3 liters 3 in 5 spoons per mu for civilian fields nor 5 liters 3 in 5 spoons for official fields. Instead, it is directly collected in half, which is 3 million shi!
Thinking of this, Chongzhen couldn't help but want to say "I'll go!" Isn't this too awesome?
It seems that Du Yinxi's ability is stronger than he imagined, he is a real capable official!
In other words, when the autumn rations come down this year, there will be no need to worry about military rations.
Du Yinxi guessed what Chongzhen was thinking and hurriedly said: "Your Majesty does not know. In order to solve the problem of seeds, I had to borrow grain seeds from the Jin gentry in Xuzhou and neighboring counties. Therefore, after the autumn grain comes, I still need to repay a considerable part."
, and then deducting the income of the refugees and the lumi of the officials, the final balance is estimated to be about 2 million dan."
"Jin Shen?" Chongzhen's face instantly darkened.
Du Yinxi's words touched a sensitive nerve in Chongzhen.
Chongzhen said: "The bandits have been raging in the Central Plains for so long, but the Jin gentry in Xuzhou still survive?"
"Yes, and there are hundreds of them." Du Yinxi said, "I heard that after the imperial court regained Xuzhou, these gentry came back one after another."
"These gentry are quite capable of saving their lives."
Chongzhen said suddenly: "They must be asking you to open a good wasteland, right?"
"I'll ask for it," Du Yinxi said, "but I can't return it to them. Not only will it not be given to them this year, but they will also have to pay additional land rent for re-cultivation to the court next year and the year after."
Chongzhen walked back and forth for a few steps and suddenly said: "Qing Du, I give you an errand."
Du Yinxi bowed his head to the ground again and said respectfully: "Please give me instructions, please."
"Check these Jin gentry in Xuzhou carefully. If you have time, you can also check the Jin gentry in the entire Central Plains." Chongzhen said with a hint, "See if they have any connection with the bandits?"
Du Yinxi suddenly raised his head and looked at Chongzhen in shock.
From Du Yinxi's expression, Chongzhen knew that he already understood.
"What?" Chongzhen looked into Du Yinxi's eyes and said, "Does Du Qing think it's inappropriate?"
"Your Majesty, it is indeed inappropriate, very inappropriate!" Facing Chongzhen's eyes, Du Yinxi said without fear, "I heard that the king does not compete with the people for profit. Your Majesty's move is really against the way of the king."
Chongzhen was not angry, and said calmly: "Okay, let me ask you now, do you know how many taels of silver were spent on rewards and pay for the frontier troops in Xia Town this month in the ten towns?"
"I have heard about it," Du Yinxi said, "a total of 600,000 taels."
Chongzhen said: "Then let me ask you now, can the current 28 border troops in Xuzhou stop the Jiannu army?"
"No." Du Yinxi said without hesitation, "If you want to hold the Huanghuai defense line, you will need at least 400,000 frontier troops, and there can't be any problems with the bandits. Otherwise, the slaves can go to Shaanxi first, and then pass through Huguang.
If they then go straight down the Yangtze River to Nanjing, it will be difficult for Zuo Liangyu who guards Wuchang to resist."
Chongzhen said: "Then let me ask you again, how much monthly salary do the 400,000 border troops need?"
Du Yinxi: "According to the standards of Ji Town, the monthly salary for sitting is 800,000 taels, and the war salary is 2.4 million taels. If there is another war, a large number of enemies are killed or there are a lot of casualties, the expenditure is likely to rise to 300,000 taels.
Ten thousand or even 4 million taels!”
When he told this number, Du Yinxi himself was shocked because it was too exaggerated.
This is one month’s expenditure. How much military salary will be spent in a year? It will cost 9.6 million taels if we do nothing!
Chongzhen was secretly frightened after hearing this, and at the same time he became more determined to reduce the recruitment of soldiers. He could never afford to raise 400,000 soldiers, and he could not even raise 200,000 at this stage.
"Qing Du, let me ask you again." Chongzhen said solemnly, "Where does so much salary come from?"
Du Yinxi muttered, wanting to say something about increasing revenue and reducing expenditure, but he swallowed it back because such a big gap cannot be solved by simply increasing revenue and reducing expenditure.
The Ming Dynasty's regular taxes, Ding taxes, corvees plus three wages were equivalent to 20 million taels a year. Now half of the land north of the Yellow River has been lost. Although the sacred land in the south of the Yangtze River is still there, taxes will definitely be reduced.
Coupled with natural and man-made disasters and the personal enrichment of officials at all levels, it would be great to collect half of this year's taxes.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! In other words, all the taxes for a year may not be enough to maintain the Huanghuai defense line.
Under such circumstances, how can we increase revenue and reduce expenditure? No matter how we increase revenue and reduce expenditure, we can’t cope with it.
Seeing that Du Yinxi was stopped by his question, Chongzhen said quietly: "Qing Du, let me tell you a story. One year, there was a flood in the Xin'an River in Zhejiang."
"If Jiande and Chun'an counties upstream destroy their dams and release floods, then Jiande and Chun'an counties will be flooded."
"But if Jiande and Chun'an counties refuse to destroy the dams and release floods, then the richest city, Hangzhou, will be submerged. From a national perspective, the losses will be ten times greater!"
"If you were the governor of Zhejiang, what would you choose?"
Du Yinxi looked bitter and said, "I will choose to flood Jiande and Chun'an counties."
"So, do you understand?" Chongzhen sighed, "As the emperor, I am the king and father of the people in the world. The people in the world are all my subjects. As the saying goes, the palms of the hands and the backs of the hands are all flesh. I am actually in a dilemma."
Du Yinxi was silent for a while and then asked: "Isn't there any other better way?"
Chongzhen said in his heart that of course there is a better way, but it is unlikely to be effective in a short time.
And there’s no need to tell Du Yinxi this, as he won’t understand it and will most likely arouse opposition.
No matter how incorruptible Du Yinxi was, he was still a civil servant. The order of scholars, farmers, industry and commerce and the idea of valuing agriculture and suppressing commerce had long been integrated into their bones, and this was difficult to change.
So all you need to do is emphasize the matter of the northern Jin gentry to Du Yinxi.
"Qing Du, as long as you have a better countermeasure, I will immediately change my course." Chongzhen said solemnly.
"So, I understand." Du Yinxi bowed and said, "I will definitely complete the errands assigned by the Holy One."
Hearing this, Chongzhen let out a sigh of relief. With Du Yinxi's words, he didn't need to worry about the preliminary preparations for this matter. The only thing he had to do now was to prepare to harvest the fruits of victory.
At this time, Du Yinxi suddenly said: "Your Majesty, although I have temporarily recruited some officials in Xuzhou, these officials are already extremely difficult to deal with the farming. If I go to investigate the Jin gentry in Xuzhou and even the surrounding counties,
, this manpower is far from enough, so can you transfer some people to me?"
Chongzhen said: "There are no officials, but there is an army."
"The army is also fine." Du Yinxi said without thinking, "Three hundred people are enough."
"I will give you 2,600 men!" Chongzhen directly transferred Jin Xuan's 2,600 cavalry to Du Yinxi. Anyway, Jin Xuan had nothing serious to do now, so he happened to be assisting Du Yinxi in investigating the Jin gentry.
Speaking of this meal, Chongzhen waved to Lu Jiude again.
Lu Jiude quickly lowered his waist and walked to Chongzhen with broken steps.
Chongzhen said: "You take my instructions and let Jin Xuan fully assist Du Qing in doing things, and then you stay with Du Qing, so there is no need to go to Nanjing for the time being."
"Old slave, I obey the order." Lu Jiude took the oral order and left with Du Yinxi.
To be honest, Lu Jiude is eager to leave Chongzhen's side now.
Accompanying a king is like accompanying a tiger, not to mention that he had the past of supporting the King of Fortune.
Even though the Holy One seems to be much more generous now than before, when it comes to the issue of the successor to the throne, Lu Jiude feels that the Holy One may not be generous enough, so it is better not to stay in front of the King.
Chongzhen said to Wang Chengen again: "Wang Daban, let the navy dock."
After receiving Chongzhen's oral instructions, Zheng Hongkui quickly directed the naval warships to dock and put down the sampans.
Chongzhen took Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong ashore, and after thinking for a while, he asked Wang Chengen to call Fu Shan and the other four soldiers who fled south to the shore. Then he joined Hu Guozhu's eight hundred Yiding and headed straight to Shanyang by land.
Chongzhen originally planned to take a leisurely trip back to Nanjing by water, but now there is a problem with the grain supply, so he can only rush there as quickly as possible by land, otherwise the more than 800,000 refugees in Xuzhou will run out of food.
Sometimes, Chongzhen really feels like a firefighter.
Ever since I traveled to the Ming Dynasty, I didn't even have time to take a breath.
