Five hundred and thirtieth chapters on the eve of moving the capital
Nowadays, the military's military expenditure is no longer an illusory figure, but it has never been truly accessible. The only things that can be acquired are supplies and weapons.
Now, the Tang Dynasty has implemented a new fiscal budget system. From now on, military expenditures allocated to the military will be directly given to the military. The Ministry of Taxation has no control over how the military spends it, and it is too lazy to do so.
As the scale of the Tang Dynasty grew larger and larger, so did the size of the army, and the scale of internal circulation of funds also grew larger and larger. In the past, the Ministry of Taxation was responsible for all money spent, and the Ministry of Industry only
The model of being responsible for producing raw materials and the military only being responsible for receiving weapons is no longer suitable for today's needs, because in this process, while the tax department has excessive power, it has also created quite serious corruption problems.
Basically, a group of corrupt officials are dug out every once in a while in the tax department, and these corrupt officials follow one after another, and none of them are afraid of death!
There is no other way, Li Xuan can only prepare to carry out reforms in advance!
Start implementing the fiscal budget system in earnest!
In fact, as early as when he was in Xingquan Mansion, Li Xuan wanted to follow the example of later generations and establish a real fiscal budget system. However, he later found that the territory was a little smaller and the money was a little less. It felt a bit ridiculous to have a fiscal budget, so he simply let
The tax department is responsible for making money and spending money. Other departments only need to do things. The military only needs to be responsible for fighting the war. They don't need to worry about money and supplies.
Now that the scale is large, and the capital is about to be moved to Zhaoqing, covering an area of two or even three provinces, it is more suitable to implement this fiscal budget system.
The financial budget system of the Tang Dynasty was relatively primitive, limited by the times and execution capabilities. First, the tax department calculated an approximate income for the year, and allocated funds based on this income. The allocation of funds for this part was divided into three parts, military expenses, and administrative expenses.
Fees, royal fees.
The royal expenses mainly include the living expenses of the royal members, the office expenses of the Imperial Academy (including institutions such as the Survey and Statistics Section of the Imperial Academy), and the military expenses of the Guards. Yes, the military expenses of both the Imperial Academy and the Imperial Guard are
It does not go through the cabinet or military channels, but directly through the royal family expense channel.
Administrative expenses are mainly the office expenses of the cabinet ministries and the Supervisory Office independent of the cabinet. When broken down, they include official salaries, education funds, industrial and commercial development funds, etc.
In terms of the military, it is simple. It is naturally the expense of the army and navy.
Because the Tang Dynasty was still in the process of rapid expansion, the revenue budget was unstable and there was no fixed amount. It could only be spent as much as you had, and in terms of expenditures, the bulk of it was military expenditures.
In the past year, more than 80% of the Tang Dynasty's income, including normal taxes and income from house confiscation, was ultimately used by the army.
Therefore, in the fiscal budget of the second year of Xuanping, the military expenditure budget accounted for 75%. In addition, it is worth noting that most of the funds included in the royal expenses were also used to serve as military expenses for the Guards.
This part probably accounts for about 8%.
Therefore, if the two are added together, military expenses actually account for 83% of all expenditures, and this proportion is extremely high even in ancient feudal dynasties where the proportion of military expenses was relatively high.
This batch of gold and silver escorted back from Guilin is so fine that at least 80% will eventually be used for military expenses.
After the military receives these military expenditures, the Privy Council will first spend a very small part of the office funds, and then the navy and army will allocate them, and the army accounts for more than 95% of them.
Part of these army military expenditures is used to pay salaries to soldiers and officers, part is used to purchase various combat materials, including ammunition, food, uniforms, etc., and part is used to purchase weapons and equipment for the army.
Most of these procurement expenses will eventually flow into the major arsenals under the Ministry of Industry. The arsenals use the money to purchase raw materials, pay workers' wages, build factories, etc., and finally produce various combat materials.
This is also the reason why of the hundreds of thousands taels, only 20,000 taels were left for the Ministry of Industry. Most of the money was given directly to the military, instead of the tax department purchasing raw materials directly as in the past.
It is then sent to the Ministry of Industry, and then the salaries of soldiers and workers are directly paid.
This rudimentary fiscal separation budget system can be regarded as an important attempt by Li Xuan to carry out modernization reforms in the 16th century. In the future, he will continue to try to separate many arsenals of the Ministry of Works from the Ministry of Works. First, he may
It is possible to establish a special agency to be responsible for operating these state-owned factories, or it may become a government-supervised commercial operation.
At the same time, private capital forces are encouraged to invest capital into industry.
Li Xuan really hates those wealthy gentry who keep buying land, houses, shops and other real estate after making money, or simply casting silver ingots and burying them in cellars. Damn, these silver ingots are buried in the soil.
I won't give birth to a little silver ingot for you, it will be buried.
Take it out and invest it and spend it. If you don’t invest it, how can I collect taxes if you don’t spend it?
However, these attempts are still too early. The foundation of the Tang Dynasty is still not deep enough to mess around!
There isn't even a capital now. It's too early to talk about industrial and commercial reforms. The top priority is to designate a capital for the Tang Dynasty!
In the words of cabinet minister Wang Wenhua, the capital should be established as soon as possible to appease the hearts of the subjects and lay the foundation of the Tang Dynasty for all generations. Everything else has to be done in the back.
So after receiving Hao Bainian's good news, a group of civil and military officials in Wuzhou began to make nervous arrangements to enter Zhaoqing. Liu Bagou, who was in Liuzhou, also led the officials in Liuzhou to prepare for the relocation.
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Fortunately, the move of the capital to Zhaoqing has been decided for a long time. Civil and military officials have long been mentally prepared for this and have made preparations in advance.
This is why all cabinet ministries, whether in Liuzhou or Wuzhou, just like Li Xuan, just find temporary offices at random, and there is no major construction work to build yamen or anything like that.
Now that Zhaoqing is captured, the first people to take action are the left-behind officials in Liuzhou. Liu Bagou will lead the left-behind officials there and many of the officials' family members. Naturally, among them are members of the royal family. They will go down the Xijiang River first.
Went to Wuzhou to meet up with Li Xuan and others, and then headed to Zhaoqing together.
It's even easier here in Wuzhou. It's just a temporary place to stay, so moving is naturally simple, easy and convenient.
The reason why Li Xuan did not go to Zhaoqing immediately, but to wait for the people from Liuzhou, was that on the one hand he wanted to take hundreds of officials and many family members to Zhaoqing, and on the other hand he also needed to provide information to the military and the Ministry of Industry.
The people from the organization set aside a certain amount of time to allow them to clean up, rectify, and repair Zhaoqing.
For example, regarding sanitation, Li Xuan hates the mess in the city. For this reason, he has personally issued an order to all aspects of the Zhaoqing Prefecture's Yamen. Others can be slowed down, but the city's sanitation must be paid attention to. He can
I don’t want to live in a capital city where the city smells like shit and urine!
With Li Xuan's high demands, the Zhaoqing Prefecture naturally did not dare to relax. Unprecedented, after the Tang Dynasty established an administrative agency in Zhaoqing Prefecture, it did not collect taxes as soon as possible. Instead, it launched a city-wide sanitation cleanup.
At the same time, a large number of illegal buildings were violently demolished. Everywhere in the city, especially in places with many shops, all buildings that encroached on the streets were demolished. It was useless for anyone to explain. Anyone who dared to object could directly ask the garrison for assistance.
When the soldiers of the First Army used shotguns to blast an illegally built restaurant to pieces, and when the owner, who was rumored to be a clan member of a high-ranking Ming Dynasty official, was hanged on the street, no one in the city dared
I can't say no to the cleanup operation of the Tang Dynasty anymore.
While cleaning up the streets and demolishing illegal buildings, a large number of people were also recruited to repair the streets, especially the several main roads in the city. They must be cleaned up. It is impossible to pave the roads with stone slabs, but paving with loess is still needed.
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Then we had to prepare office space for the royal family and officials.
This time, Li Xuan and the others were not ready to leave Zhaoqing for a short period of time after they came to Zhaoqing. The imperial palace must exist, and the yamen of each cabinet department must also exist, and neither the imperial palace nor the cabinet yamen must be too shabby or stingy.
However, it is naturally too late to build directly, and there is no money. For this reason, the relevant personnel responsible for this time can only use the original buildings in the city, such as the Zhaoqing Prefecture Yamen. Although this Yamen is a bit shabby and small,
, but after all, it is also the most magnificent building in the city, so it is naturally the first choice for the palace. At the same time, a large area of houses and open space to the left and right of the Yamen has been requisitioned, and is planned to be cleared and bulldozed, all of which will be included in the scope of the palace.
The Ministry of Works will later build a new palace on the basis of this building and open space, but it can only be done bit by bit. As for when the huge building complex planned by the Ministry of Works will be completed, only God knows.
Anyway, in a short period of time, the entire palace will still have the original magistrate's office building complex as the core, but the scale is not large, and many buildings are not suitable for use, so several small-scale courtyards will be built in the early stage for the residence of royal members.
At the same time, a main hall, or building complex, will be built for Li Xuan and the Hanlin Academy's offices.
As for the rest of the area, we will leave it alone first, knock down all the original ordinary buildings, and then plant some random flowers, dig a small pond, and make a garden, but don't expect to build any royal garden.
Build a palace wall on the periphery, but building a city wall has always been a big project. Li Xuan doesn't even have money for military expenses, how can he spend so much money to build a thick and high palace wall? Just build a wall a few meters high.
Well, as for how to defend yourself.
Li Xuan planned to place a full Guards battalion in the palace, and two Guards infantry battalions, a cavalry battalion and an artillery battalion in the city. He felt that this was much more reliable than the city wall.
This is the case for the imperial palace, so the office locations of other institutions can naturally be saved. They basically use the original government buildings and private houses of the Ming Dynasty.
After the palace and the offices of various institutions, the residences of officials and a large number of family members were prepared, Liu Bagou also arrived in Wuzhou with the left-behind personnel from Liuzhou. This also represented the preparations for the Tang Dynasty to move the capital.
It has been completely completed, and now the Tang Dynasty is about to officially move its capital!