“In order to fight against the outside world, we must first settle down at home!”
At a later meeting at the Prime Minister's Office, the emperor clearly stated his point of view. To guard the pass and make progress, we must not do without troops, and if we have troops, we must not do without pay.
And wages come from the people, and when there are people, there will be wages. Only when the people are at peace can they have adequate wages.
"My lords, the Han and Tang Dynasties were rejuvenated, and each had his or her own merits. I am of mediocre nature, and I am afraid of humiliating my ancestors. I am cautious, as if walking on thin ice. Since the beginning of the army, I have personally led the Sixth Division to the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains. Although I have achieved small success, the world is still in turmoil.
Your Majesty and others advise me to send troops directly to Beijing, but then the country will be unstable and the people will not be safe. If we use troops like this, the people will be in trouble and I will be uneasy."
Zhu Yihai said it very clearly. Although Huguang was taken over without a fight, for Ming Dynasty, the situation was great on the surface, but in fact it had reached its limit.
In particular, the southeastern provinces where the imperial court really had strong control, as well as the newly recovered half of Shandong and Hebei, Henan, Hubei, and Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, and Gansu, basically had no real control over these places.
Without real control, there is no real recovery.
Without military power, there is no governance power, no finance and taxation, and no stability. During the Zhengde period, Emperor Wu Zong went to war against Mongolia, which resulted in chaos and chaos in southern Jiangxi, Yunyang, Pianyuan and other places.
To mention it, the country's foundation was emptied out, and the Ming Dynasty was actually destroyed in Wanli.
The Chongzhen Dynasty and the Jurchens fought in Liaodong. As a result, peasant uprisings broke out in the interior, and there were internal and external attacks.
Since the Ming Dynasty, three inter-provincial governors have been established in the mainland, namely Nangan, Yunyang and Pianyuan. Nangan governs the counties at the junction of the four provinces of Jiangxi, Huguang, Fujian and Guangdong, and is stationed in Ganzhou to arrest thieves, appease the people and appease the refugees.
The governor of Yunyang was established to manage the refugees in Yunxiang and was responsible for the military and civilian affairs of the five provinces and eight prefectures in the four provinces of Sichuan, Hubei, Henan and Shaanxi.
Governor Pianyuan was initially created specifically for the Battle of Bozhou to assist in the transportation of military supplies, and later served as the admiral in charge of military affairs to suppress the Miao rebellion.
In these places, after the social unrest in the Ming Dynasty, a large number of people fled their hometowns and became refugees. They poured into remote mountainous areas with vast areas and sparsely populated areas, especially in unmanaged areas at the junction of several provinces for reclamation, farming, mining, etc., which brought serious banditry.
, so the imperial court had to set up special governors to facilitate cross-province suppression of bandits and peace of mind for the people.
The problem of refugees among the people was serious, and then it turned into banditry, and then there was the peasant uprising in the late Ming Dynasty. This was the inevitable result of getting more and more out of control, and the court was still unable to solve the fundamental problem of control.
After all, the people can no longer survive.
Whether it was the successive military campaigns against Mongolia in the early and middle Ming dynasties, the three great conquests of Wanli later, or the war against the Jurchens since the late Ming Dynasty, coupled with the corruption of officials and the huge fundamental loopholes in the country's fiscal and taxation system, it led to internal troubles
When foreign aggression collapses, poor people are the first to fall.
They were forced to leave their homes and became hungry people, then refugees, then bandits, and finally rebels.
It is necessary to drive out the Tartars and revive the Ming Dynasty.
But we have to make peace with the outside world, otherwise we may have a situation like Chongzhen's. The imperial officers and soldiers fought against the Jurchens outside the pass. As a result, there was a fire in the backyard, a lack of pay, famine, etc., which made the people revolt one after another.
This kind of thing happened endlessly throughout history.
Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty conquered Goguryeo three times, and then Wang Bo, a native of Shandong, revolted in Changbai Mountain and sang the death song of Liaodong Lang, setting off a great uprising in the late Sui Dynasty and singing the funeral songs of the Sui Dynasty.
Later, Yang Guangbiao's nephew Li Shimin was so talented and strategist that he was called Tian Khan by the grasslands. However, he waited until his later years before he dared to send troops to Liaodong, and he only dared to send 100,000 troops.
"I need Shandong, Henan, Hebei, Henan, Jiangbei, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi provinces to provide taxes to the imperial court. I hope that the provinces can be stable so that they can reduce the current excessive taxes.
of the army to save military expenditures.
I also need the place to be stable and the people to be happy with their work, so that we can reduce the amount of money and food needed for relief."
Wen Anzhi, Ruan Dacheng and other great scholars couldn't help but nodded in understanding after hearing the emperor's words.
Indeed, despite the fact that the imperial court has regained most of the world, as of now, the provinces that can really pay taxes to the imperial court and do not need subsidies from the imperial court, namely Jiangdong, Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangbei, Shandong, and Liaodong, basically have a balanced balance of payments.
Sichuan has been fighting wars before, and it still continues to subsidize.
If Zhu Yihai hadn't engaged in maritime trade, collected industrial and commercial taxes, and effectively controlled taxes on salt, tea, wine, and minerals, he could also collect lijin, plus confiscation of criminal property, sale of official property, and subsidies from official and royal operations, etc.
How can we support such continuous military expansion, pay, and equipment?
However, the territory has expanded quite quickly in the past two years, and many places have never been able to turn a profit and have always been in a subsidized state. This leaves Zhu Yihai with nothing to do.
He wanted to strike while the iron was hot and rush into Guanzhong, kill Nikan, behead Wu Sangui, and then march into Shanxi, join forces with the Hebei army, and regain Beijing in one fell swoop.
But Wen Anzhi, the first assistant, Ruan Dacheng, the bachelor of the branch of household affairs, and Ma Shiying, the new minister of household affairs, all warned the emperor that there was no money in the treasury, and there was not much food and grass to supply. With so many armies marching into Guanzhong to fight,
Not to mention flying to Shanxi and Beijing in one go.
Money and food cannot support it.
Pay salaries to central and local officials, to more and more imperial camps, outlying towns, villages, regiments, etc., to pay the postmen in posthouses and delivery shops, to pay salaries and subsidies to schools in various places, and to the people everywhere.
Provide disaster relief, recruit refugees to resume farming, and even pay for immigrants from border areas to farm.
There are also special funds for repairing the Yellow River, canals, and dredging water conservancy.
It even provides interest-free and low-interest loans to the people to resume production.
However, in these newly recovered areas, because after the war, the imperial court had to waive the land tax, and even had preferential treatment for industry and commerce.
There are money-attracting black holes everywhere.
The imperial court also issued a lot of special treasury bonds, such as the Yellow River treasury bonds, the Huaihe River management treasury bonds, the Yangtze River treasury bonds, and the Yizhan treasury bonds, etc. It borrowed a lot of money and it has not yet matured, but interest has to be paid every year.
Taxes are not increasing, and spending is skyrocketing.
Even a clever woman cannot make a meal without rice.
The emperor also had to suspend the military offensive and began to reorganize the army, reduce military expenditures, and organize the place, hoping to resume production as soon as possible and increase fiscal and tax revenue.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! There are no more than two methods to solve financial problems, increase revenue and reduce expenditure.
Zhu Yihai also has a third method, which is to borrow money and issue national bonds. Since Chongzhen, a large number of people at the bottom have gone bankrupt and are still waiting for relief. They can't even pay taxes, let alone buy bonds. Therefore, these bonds are mainly provided to bureaucrats and wealthy people.
borrow.
Before the fall of the country, Chongzhen asked his ministers and relatives to borrow money, but he couldn't borrow money. Zhu Yihai borrowed money, which was a bond, but the essence was borrowing money, but there was a complete set of bill rules, and the interest was 10%.
Moreover, Zhu Yihai's successive victories in the military also provided him with credit that he would not borrow. Although the interest rate was not relatively high, it was still relatively safe.
But debt must be repaid, and you cannot borrow indefinitely.
The most important thing is to increase revenue and reduce expenditure.
Open source means nothing more than strengthening foreign trade, increasing the price of public land, selling mineral resources, etc., or increasing the income of state-owned handicraft workshops, but these increases are also difficult.
So we still have to cut costs.
And now, the largest proportion of fiscal expenditure is military expenditure.
The two main items were fighting and raising troops, so Zhu Yihai could only choose to postpone the war and continue to reduce the number of troops.
Although the military pay in provincial towns and outer towns is lower, their numbers are large and their expenses are huge. Now that the south is being pacified, their role is not great, and their cost performance is too low. Especially since the imperial court has weak control over them, they are composed of local rebels.
Composed of armed landlords, tribal soldiers, and even bandits and refugees, the army has poor military discipline and disturbs the people.
Now, it has become a burden and hidden danger to the court, and it is time to clean up and rectify it.
Although the cost of military pay for the towns and regiment training is not high, it still needs in-depth rectification.
"The current comprehensive military reduction will also require a large amount of demobilization and resettlement expenses." Ruan Shicheng said bluntly that the emperor always treated the soldiers favorably. Even if they abolished those towns in other provinces and towns, he would not do it with just a word. He would definitely give them a salary.
It was a generous severance pay. In addition to the few months of salary that the soldiers had saved every year, the court had to double it again, which was another huge amount.
"As for the severance pay and the provident fund, it's not a problem. You should pay it as much as you should. However, it can be paid on a monthly basis and distributed over several years. In this way, the financial burden will not be so heavy." Zhu Yihai said directly.
.
Liu Chao came in.
"Your Majesty, the factory guard has reported secretly that Zhang An is plotting rebellion and Long Wu's army is going to rebel."
This shocking news fell into the ears of the emperor, but he was not surprised at all. He just nodded, and then said to the ministers as usual, "It's not an accident, but there is an accident. Zhang An wants to rebel, Long Wu
The army is going to cause chaos, which makes me very disappointed."
When Wen Anzhi and others heard this, they were all moved.
"Your Majesty, please hurry up and send troops to surround Long Wu's army."
"It doesn't matter. With the army gathered here, thousands of cave barbarians can still rebel. I'm just a little regretful. I treated Zhang An and the Longwu Army well. I gave them officials, promotions, and rewards and enfeoffments. I just issued the order yesterday.
The decree is to give each of them thirty acres of land, and give them a free wife. The officers will still retain them, and the brave soldiers will also choose them, and they will continue to receive pay and food. Why should we rebel?"
"Your Majesty, please send troops quickly to capture Zhang An to prevent the unrest from spreading."
Zhu Yihai poured himself a cup of tea and drank it slowly.
"No rush, wait a minute, I want to see what kind of noise Zhang An can make, and also want to hear what slogans he can shout."
"Liu Chao, please inform the External Affairs Office of the cabinet co-organizer Yang Tinglin, the official secretary Wan Yuanji, as well as Jie Chongxi, Fu Dingquan, Liu Tongsheng, Liu Guangyin, Li Yongmao, Luo Rong, Xiao Sheng, Luo Yafu, and Zhang Zisheng
, Cao Dahao, Wang Laiba, Hong Guoyu, Zhao Yinxuan, Hu Yiqing and others came."
These people are both civilized and military, but they have one thing in common: they all came from Jiangxi, and most of them are from Jiangxi.
At the beginning of Zhu Yihai's army, under the leadership of Wan Yuanji, Yang Tinglin, Fu Dingquan, and Jie Chongxi, they burned incense and swore an oath together in the Minglun Hall of the Confucius Temple in Ganzhou to build the Loyalty Society, raise the banner of resistance to the Qing Dynasty, and then recruit soldiers everywhere
horse.
Luo Rong, nicknamed Mr. Yama, was once the leader of the Dongman tribes in southern Jiangxi. Zhang An of the Longwu Army was originally just one of his vanguards.
