The soldiers and horses have not moved, but the food and grass go first.
The third Northern Expedition has not yet been officially decided, but money and food must be prepared first.
Although there is now a voice in Nanjing, and it is not a small one, and it has the support of many scholars and people, that is, peace negotiation. Beijing has once again sent envoys south to demand an armistice and peace negotiation.
Zhu Yihai was also very aware of the Tatars' petty intentions, which were just a delaying strategy. However, he was still willing to play with the Tatars, so ostensibly he still let the court select representatives to negotiate with the Tatars.
This undoubtedly caused some misunderstandings among the people. They really thought that the Ming Dynasty had stabilized half of the country and could divide the country with the Tatars. The cruelty of the war is obvious. Now that there is a chance to cease the war, many people are actually willing.
They just wishfully thought that peace could be negotiated, but they did not expect or did not want to think that peace could not be negotiated.
The people were discussing the matter of dividing the river and governing it, and many officials even appeared in the court to discuss peace memorials.
There was a peacemaker in the court, and there were quite a few of them.
Some people are afraid of war. They are afraid. Now that they have half of the country, they want to negotiate a peace as soon as possible. Some officials, because they have insufficient intelligence and information, have biased judgments and think that the current situation is
Next, it would be beneficial to negotiate a peace for the time being.
They take the opportunity to recuperate, resume production, and stabilize the South so that they can fight again and regain the Central Plains in the future. They are the easing faction.
If we continue to fight, we will probably collapse and subjugate the country.
Anyway, no matter which way you think, everyone is very enthusiastic about the peace negotiation. Many people are even discussing privately what conditions should be put forward, whether it is to establish the Northern and Southern Dynasties side by side, or to let the Tatars claim vassal status. Of course, everyone also knows that now the Tatars
If you occupy the north, your strength may be stronger than that in the south.
But everyone is definitely not willing to accept the theory that the Ming Dynasty paid tribute to the Tatars, so they still think that even if we want to talk, it should be based on the old rules. Jianzhou Jurchen was a vassal of the Ming Dynasty before, so we can fake the previous Korean Kingdom rules.
Let the Manchu Qing Dynasty become a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty.
No matter how passionate everyone talks, Zhu Yihai is still very determined.
It is impossible to negotiate peace. If we don't beat the Tatars quickly now that we have the opportunity to let them take their breath, it will be even more difficult then.
Although the treasury is now empty and Jiangnan is corrupt, we still have to fight and maintain a proactive offensive posture. If we turn to defense, we will be passive everywhere.
Moreover, it was Zhu Yihai who held the banner of resisting and restoring the Qing Dynasty to have the Ming Dynasty as it is today. If a peace and truce were negotiated, the Ming Dynasty might start fighting among themselves again.
We must continue to attack and continue the Northern Expedition, so that we can transfer all internal contradictions and deal with the outside world in a unified manner. Under the banner of the Northern Expedition, it will be much easier to do many things.
Once peace is negotiated, many people feel that there is no longer the threat of national subjugation and genocide, and they may want to cause trouble again.
Of course, not everyone wants to negotiate peace. There are still many warring factions, including important officials in the court and ordinary people.
Some brave scholars openly wrote a letter criticizing the peace negotiators in the imperial court as capitulationists, calling them traitors, and saying that the emperor was weak.
Some young censors wrote boldly and directly, using very impolite words. After reading this, Zhu Yihai was not angry, but very pleased.
He deliberately wrote down the passionate sentiments of these militant factions and had them published in the imperial newspaper and even copied by Fuxing News so that more people would know these voices and attitudes.
His reaction made many people feel quite satisfied. In comparison, when Chongzhen was in trouble both internally and externally and was beaten to the gates of Beijing by the Tatars, he also thought about negotiating a peace to gain opportunities. However, he wanted to negotiate a peace but did not want to.
Dare to bear the infamy, secretly sending ministers here to talk about it, and then pretending that the matter was leaked, but refused to take responsibility, and instead killed the ministers to take the blame. This kind of performance is actually a lack of responsibility.
In contrast, Zhu Yihai was very generous. He accepted the suggestions of some peace negotiators and selected officials to start contacting the Qing envoys to prepare for negotiations. He was also very open and aboveboard and did not do it secretly.
But even when the peace talks began, he did not say that there would be no objections. As long as they were reasonable, he even allowed them to be published in newspapers.
This attitude is at least relatively acceptable to the officials and the people.
Of course, the peace talks were made public on the surface, despite the infamy of many Qingliu literati and officials, who said that the Central Plains, the land of ancestors, and even the Jurchen land in Liaodong, had been the homeland of the Han family as early as the Han and Tang Dynasties, and should not be abandoned lightly, but
Zhu Yihai wouldn't care about this.
He is a pragmatic emperor.
Negotiating peace is nothing more than a means of struggle.
Fortunately, most of the important ministers in the court today, whether they are advocating for peace or fighting, have understood the emperor's thoughts and intentions under Zhu Yihai's frank summons, and are more supportive of the emperor's pragmatic methods.
At the center of the court, Zhu Yihai's will is still well implemented.
Shouting and killing outside would not cause chaos in the Ming Dynasty.
The generals of the imperial camp were also summoned by the emperor one after another. All the generals supported the plans of the three Northern Expeditions. Compared with the officials in the imperial court, many of the imperial camp officials had lower backgrounds. They followed the emperor in the northern expedition and were able to achieve their current status.
Yes, those soldiers in the imperial camp now receive generous salaries and enjoy good benefits. They know very well who gave them all and how they came about.
Therefore, they supported the Northern Expedition more than anyone else and were willing to fight, because only by fighting in the Northern Expedition would they have a better life.
They are not afraid of death or fighting. Many of the soldiers in the imperial camp were former miners, farmers, small traders, and even poor military households in the guard house. It is not scary to fight hard, but they are afraid that their death will be meaningless and unrewarded.
If they can exchange their lives for a future, money and food, a land and a house, or even a wife from the emperor, then there is nothing to be afraid of.
Many of the chief military officers in the imperial camp turned out to be just ordinary people, such as Yang Boxing, who used to be a woodcutter, and Zhang Quan, who was just a defeated soldier.
Not to mention many deputy generals participating in guerrilla attacks and so on.
Their destiny and future are not tied to the Ming Dynasty, but to the emperor Zhu Yihai. Without Zhu Yihai, they would have nothing.
Not to mention Zhu Yihai's three Northern Expeditions, even if Zhu Yihai now said that he would lead troops to attack Beijing directly, they would all be willing to follow him to the death.
Once you go to war and leave the garrison, your military pay will be much higher and your rations will increase. Not to mention that you can make meritorious deeds during the war, you can get rewards, and you can even be promoted. So there is no reason not to support the Northern Expedition.
The generals of the imperial camp patted their chests one by one and expressed their position to the emperor. They raised troops for a thousand days and used them for a short period of time. Use me in the first battle, and you will win if you use me. They don't care about anything else, they just fight wherever the emperor tells them.
Zhu Yihai was very satisfied with this attitude. He was worthy of being the royal army he brought out with his own hands. All conditions were given priority. Fortunately, he insisted on leading the troops himself as a warlord overseeing the country.
There is no need to worry about military morale. The only thing Zhu Yihai needs to worry about now is food and pay.
"All gold, salt taxes, and customs duties are exclusively used for the imperial army."
In order to be able to successfully fight the Northern Expedition and to establish imperial camps in other places, Zhu Yihai made a special edict to allocate all the money collected by the Lijin Bureau, the Municipal Shipping Department, the Chaoguan, and the Salt Department Yamen to the imperial government.
Camp, used for food, equipment, marching and fighting, pensions, etc. for the royal camp.
The land taxes and dingyin collected by the imperial court were collected from every acre, and the part turned over to the state treasury was used for palace expenses, official salaries, and grain and salary for the capital and provincial governments.
The remaining part of the local government is responsible for local officials’ salaries, team training, Baojia, water conservancy projects and other expenses.
The rest of the industrial and commercial tax is managed by the Ministry of Household Affairs and used for other expenses such as court and local construction projects or disaster relief.
Zhu Yihai also has the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the royal palace, the Weaving Bureau and other manor, mineral handicraft workshops, and even trading houses, caravans, etc. The money earned from these is Zhu Yihai's personal funds, which are mainly used for rewards.
Live within your means.
All incomes are arranged separately, but the imperial camp is obviously very special. They have special funds for the army, and now the income from gold, salt tax, banknote tax, and customs tax is quite a lot, and with the recovery of the entire Jiangnan, the income will increase in the future.
A substantial increase.
With such a special source of funds guaranteed, the food, wages, and equipment of the imperial camp can also be guaranteed.
Although it seems unfair to other armies, for Zhu Yihai, good steel must be used on the blade.
To reorganize the national army and reorganize the private armies of local military leaders into official troops and control them, the best way is to start with money and food.
When building imperial camps in various places, the first thing to do is to ensure the protection of money and grain income and expenditure, and to prohibit local military chiefs from privately collecting additional taxes, even withholding local taxes, or even openly smuggling, etc.
Without the support of money and food, the local military leaders could not separatist power. They could only rely on the supply of money and food from the court. Naturally, their lifeblood was in the hands of the emperor, and they could only obey the emperor in the future.
Lijin is essentially an additional industrial and commercial tax. The industrial and commercial tax was almost abolished in the past, but now it has been re-levied. Zhu Yihai has levied an additional Lijin in addition to the regular industrial and commercial tax. Although this Lijin does not seem to be high, Zhu Yihai set up a Lijin Bureau.
, and the disabled soldiers in the imperial camp were converted into officers of the tax police corps, plus some supplementary tax police. In particular, the tax police corps was specially directed by the imperial camp.
Therefore, Zhu Yihai's Lijin Bureau has a very strong collection ability. The front is the tax police group, but the back is supported by the imperial army from all over the country. No one dares to mess with the Lijin Bureau, especially since the Lijin Bureau itself is under the Ministry of Household Affairs.
They are a special yamen that is also directly subordinate to the emperor.
This particularity from top to bottom has made the Lijin Bureau a powerful department. In just half a year last year, the Lijin Bureau collected more than 2 million taels of silver in Zhejiang. This only included the five prefectures in eastern Zhejiang, not including western Zhejiang.
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This year, the director of the General Administration of Lijin reported to Zhu Yihai that the General Administration of Lijin had begun to be established in the recovered areas and it was expected to collect 6 million taels of Lijin this year.
In fact, this is still reserved. The six million figure mainly refers to the amount collected in the areas that the imperial camp can control. As for the three provinces of Lingnan and the three southwest provinces, although these places have also begun to set up bureaus, they are temporarily left to the local governments.
The governor also receives it, so I don't expect to pay too much money for the time being.
But even the figure of six million taels is still very astonishing.
Last year's salt tax revenue was more than 2.7 million taels. This year after the restoration of Jiangnan, it is expected to reach 6 million. Such high salt tax revenue is mainly brought about by the new salt policy. Nowadays, special traders have been liberalized.
In addition to the salt district and other systems, the amount of private salt has been reduced. Although the salt tax has been reduced, and the income of salt nests and other places has been reduced, the scope of salt tax collection has been expanded, especially the imperial camp also supports the salt tax business and strongly protects the salt tax.
collection.
Only half of the country's tax revenue was achieved, but the salt tax was several times that of the previous country.
According to reports from the salt tax yamen, if the salt tax is restored to the whole country, the national salt tax revenue will even reach an annual income of tens of millions of taels.
The income from customs duties and banknote duties was not high last year, but the imperial court also ran a foreign trade firm and directly engaged in trade, so the total income was nearly one million taels.
This is still affected by the war. Otherwise, the customs and trade revenue would be very high, even if it is tens of millions a year, it would not be surprising.
Therefore, this year’s expected lijin revenue is 6 million taels, salt tax is 6 million, and customs duties and foreign trade can also be 1 million, adding up to 13 million taels.
If all this money is used to supply the imperial army, it is not a small amount.
At that time, the Ming Dynasty made every effort to build and support the Guanning Army. The court spent several million taels of military expenditures in Liaodong a year. Although it did not make any splash later, compared with the original Ming Army, the Guanning Army in Liaodong was indeed considered a small force.
The new army has become elite.
Zhu Yihai has 13 million for the imperial camp, which can definitely guarantee that the elite of the imperial camp can fight.
The central army of the imperial camp consists of the left and right compartments, plus the Fujian camp, the Huguang camp, and the planned Sichuan-Guihang camp, Shaanxi-Gansu camp, and Yunyang camp.
The three armies of the headquarters, plus the five camps, each have six towns on the left and right sides of the headquarters with 30,000 soldiers. The six towns of the central army have 8,000 soldiers in each town plus a total of 50,000 soldiers directly under them.
Each of the five camps will first prepare 5,000 troops for a total of 25,000 troops.
This year, the imperial camp will be able to expand to 110,000 troops for the headquarters and 25,000 for the Five Elements Battalion, adding up to 135,000 troops and 41,44 auxiliary troops, for a total of 156,400 troops.
This troop strength is definitely very strong. If 13 million taels of silver are allocated to these 150,000 soldiers, each soldier can be spread to 83 taels.
The average food and salary for the imperial camp is about 50 taels per soldier per year, plus the cost of equipment, horses, etc. If there are more wars to use soldiers, plus rewards and pensions, etc., then 13 million per year for the imperial camp will not be enough.
The base figure of 15 million does not include the additional military expenses for the war. If the Northern Expedition is to be carried out this year and camps are set up in various places to guard the country, at least 5 million or even 10 million will be added.
The military expenditure of 25 million is not enough only for salt tax, gold, and customs duties. There is still a shortfall of 12 million. Zhu Yihai does not intend to use land tax, dingyin, industrial and commercial taxes, etc. for this part.
After all, the money has been put to good use a long time ago, and there is nothing left.
He can only find compensation from other places, such as issuing national bonds, soliciting donations and raising wages, and then using war to support war, seizing money and food through war, seizing land, houses, goods, etc. to sell, or even attacking local tyrants.
For example, the property of Tatar officials was confiscated, or the property of those who surrendered and collaborated with the enemy was confiscated.
The last way to make money is to sell an official position. It is not simply selling an official position, but selling some false title, such as prison student, to pay for one's imprisonment.
Or they may sell some talents, promote people, or even hold official positions without actual duties, usually those with false titles below the fourth rank. They buy them to have an identity, which can honor their ancestors, and they may not even kneel before officials, and they cannot even be directly interrogated by torture in case of lawsuits.
, you have to report it first to seize your identity. Anyway, you have some small privileges.
But you cannot directly serve as an official.
In fact, there are still many people who are willing to buy this kind of supervisory student status.
For example, in the Qing Dynasty, a fourth-grade Taoist title cost 16,000 taels of silver to buy, but if you bought it, you could only wear the fourth-grade official uniform, but it did not mean that you could become a fourth-grade official. Under normal circumstances, it would not be possible in your lifetime.
There is a real shortage of jobs, but it is still very attractive to many wealthy people.
It is still possible to make millions or tens of millions a year by selling officials, issuing bonds, and raising donations. Of course, it is necessary to support war with war. If the Northern Expedition goes smoothly, the money obtained through seizure, seizure, confiscation, etc. will not be less.