Frankly speaking, although Zhu Dadian's words are unfair, they are not completely unreasonable.
It's a pity that Chongzhen's temper is typical of first formulating a set of principles for governing the country behind closed doors, and then announcing that "principles are above all else and do not allow seeking truth from facts based on actual conditions"——
If there is no last resort, then there must be a minister who is willing to take the blame for "breaking the principle" and kill the blood sacrifice afterwards. In this way, the emperor always adheres to the principle, and it is some treacherous sycophants who deceived the superiors and acted accordingly.
Moreover, this minister's rank cannot be low. If you don't use the head of a senior cabinet minister, you still want to expect the "always correct" His Majesty Chongzhen to be accommodating? You are just dreaming.
Sure enough, after hearing Zhu Dadian's words, Chongzhen immediately became furious.
"Insolent! Zhu Dadian! When formulating strategies, the Ministry of Household Affairs naturally puts frugality first! Now in order to train troops to suppress thieves and drive out slaves, nearly eight million taels of training wages have been added. If what Shen Qing just said can be realized, the province will The money I got was less than half of my training salary!
Could it be that in your eyes, the lives of those Cao Ding are lives, but the lives of the people all over the world who are overwhelmed by training wages are not lives! When people are too busy, they should find other ways to find a way out, instead of letting redundant personnel fall on the court. Vampire!"
To be honest, Chongzhen still doesn't feel that he did anything wrong in abolishing the post stations or imposing strict military discipline.
We cannot negate the reduction of redundant personnel just because the number of people who rely on the financial system has been downsized and Li Zicheng has emerged. Nor can we deny the enforcement of military discipline just because Zhang Xianzhong, who was beaten by a military stick, has a grudge and turned to the thieves.
Zhu Dadian was also in a hurry just now. Now when he heard what the emperor said, he felt bitter in his mouth. He knew that he had said the wrong thing. He asked himself that it was not for the family's money, but for the hundreds of thousands of people who relied on finance to support him.
His mind was racing, and he finally realized that he had to give in at this moment - if the emperor killed him, it would prevent water transportation from changing to the sea, and his name would be remembered in history, and he would be recognized by history books as a critic who spoke uprightly.
The key is that if Chongzhen kills him now, he will definitely continue to push for the change of water transportation to sea. Then his death will be in vain, and he will not be able to change his name in history.
He quickly knelt down and kowtowed and apologized: "I made a slip of the tongue, please forgive me, but what I said was for the sake of the country. Your Majesty insists on forcing the water transportation to be changed to sea. At least ask Shen Tingyang to come up with a strategy to resettle the redundant Cao people!
If he cannot take it out, then he will be killed but not buried, and your majesty will be treated as unkind! Your majesty insists on punishing me severely, but I have nothing to say. As long as your majesty also severely punishes the thieves who trapped me, I will die without regrets!"
Zhu Dadian had been tied to the interests of water transportation all his life. At that moment, his blood was boiling. He felt that as long as he killed Shen Tingyang, a national thief who broke the laws of his ancestors, he would do it for one life.
Anyway, I am already sixty years old, and I will be alive soon. The other party is just forty, so it will not be a loss if he replaces him! It is best that after both of them are dead, the benefits of the family and the entire interest group of the disciples and staff around them can continue. The country’s old laws can also be stabilized, so that’s no big deal!
The wealth of millions of taels of silver every year can make people so crazy that they will not hesitate to gamble their lives.
Chongzhen couldn't help being stunned when he heard this. He didn't expect that Zhu Dadian would suddenly become so sincere, make such big concessions, and even retreat to the point where he was not afraid of death. He seemed to be a truly loyal minister.
Chongzhen was inevitably shaken and felt that he really could not control, kill or bury him, and even if he wanted to implement reforms, he had to make more backup preparations.
He was silent for a long time and turned to Shen Tingyang:
"Shen Qing, you have heard what Zhu Dadian said. It is indeed true. Even if some things are right, you must think carefully before doing them. If you insist on changing water transportation to sea, how many people in Cao will be unemployed and how will they be resettled? Have you ever thought about it?"
Shen Tingyang had been watching Zhu Dadian and Chongzhen's performances just now. Seeing that the problem was gradually moving towards the direction that his son had practiced with him before, he was nervous and looking forward to it.
Fortunately, I am compassionate and my son has thought carefully about it. He has actually prepared for this problem in advance!
Shen Tingyang immediately cheered up: "Your Majesty, I have calculated how many people's livelihoods will be affected by the change of water transportation to sea. Today, the total cost of water transportation for the imperial court is more than one or two and five yuan per stone of grain, and it is less than two and a half. According to four hundred Calculating the amount of ten thousand stones, after completely changing the sea transportation, we can save three to four million taels, which is equivalent to half of the training salary.
Today, there are approximately hundreds of thousands of civilians across the country who rely on canal transportation. The Guard Patrol and Protection Army has seven battalions of guards, each with 3,500 men. A total of 24,000 soldiers are responsible for patrolling the canal. But in fact, as far as I know, There are many people who are free of charge, and there are some patrol camps and guards, but there are less than 2,000 people!
In addition to civilians and patrol cavalry troops, there are also transport guards, involving more than 30 guard posts in counties along the river, with a total transport strength of more than 100,000 people, but in fact many of them have free pay.
After the water transportation was changed to sea, I roughly estimated that since it can save 40% of the cost, based on the same amount of money and food consumed by each person, a rough average estimate will squeeze out about 40% of the redundant personnel. Mainly concentrated in Linqing, Shandong, and Huai'an, Zhili in the south. Mansion.
The total number is approximately 11,000 patrol soldiers, 60,000 guards transport troops, and more than 500,000 civilians. Among these people, the patrol soldiers and guards transport troops are fully supported by the imperial government all year round. "The five hundred thousand civilians have other livelihoods to support their families during the off-season, and are used by the court during the busy season. Therefore, these 600,000 people can only make a living on three to four million taels of silver."
Shen Tingyang analyzed clearly the money he could save and the number of people to be resettled in one breath. Although he has not yet mentioned a specific solution, at least the problem has been clearly investigated.
Based on the prices in the late Ming Dynasty, if 600,000 people were working full-time to provide water transportation services, then of course it would not be possible for three to four million taels to be enough.
That's equivalent to only five silver coins per person per month. These people are still strong laborers, and they also have to support the elderly and weak women and children. Five coins is simply not enough to feed the whole family.
In addition, Shen Tingyang's words also clearly defined the geographical scope of the problems to be solved - mainly Linqing and Huai'an, and other places will not be affected.
Chongzhen didn't understand the rationale for this at first, but after asking again, Shen Tingyang analyzed it in depth and made it very clear: Tongzhou and Yangzhou, the other two major Cao people gathering places, can be easily digested.
As the last place to receive grain, Tongzhou has the least impact. Even if the dock loading and unloading facilities are upgraded and production efficiency is improved, the extra people can be moved to Tianjin Wei. The relocation distance is not far and the cost is not high.
After the sea reform, the labor force needed by Tianjin increased, and people from Tongzhou just came to make up the gap.
The situation in Yangzhou is a little more complicated than that in Tongzhou, but it can be solved. The change of water transportation to sea in the Jiangnan area will also create new labor gaps, so arrangements must be made clearly.
After clarifying these points, Chongzhen felt calm: Shen Aiqing is very cautious in thinking about things! As for the long-term consequences that she may cause, she is not very clear about it, and at least half of it has been solved!
Seeing that the emperor was happy, Shen Tingyang quickly continued to strike while the iron was hot and analyzed: "Your Majesty, not to mention the 600,000 people in Linqing and Huai'an cannot be solved at once. Now that the number of my fleet is insufficient, other maritime merchants can provide services for the court." What is used also needs time to be scheduled and rectified.
The transformation from water transport to sea transport will only involve 20% of the total transport capacity this year, and the remaining 80% will still have to go through canals. From now on, if everything goes well, it can increase by 20% every year, so it will take five years to complete this reform step by step.
The amount of money that can be saved for the court in the past five years will be increased by 800,000 taels per year, and will reach 4 million taels in five years. The redundant personnel that need to be arranged are only 112,000 taels per year. It will take five years to All 600,000 people were squeezed out.
After careful calculation, it is enough to arrange a way out for more than 50,000 laborers in Linqing and Huai'an each year. If it is inconvenient to find a way out locally, some people can also immigrate."
Shen Tingyang's accounts were very detailed. When Chongzhen heard this, he was already 70% or 80% willing.
Moreover, when Shen Tingyang was making plans, Shen Shuren obviously did not tell him the historical foresight, so Shen Tingyang calculated according to the progress of "completely completing the reform in five years". He did not know that Chongzhen was less than four years away. About to die.
But in any case, even if the reform cannot be completely completed, it is still a good thing to save 800,000 to 3 million taels per year in the next four years.
The money saved can train more soldiers and reduce the burden of more people. This must be done even if the emperor dies.
The more Chongzhen thought about it, the more excited he became. He couldn't help but dig deeper and think about more details: "Shen Qing, what else is there? Tell me, Linqing and Huai'an have 50,000 strong laborers every year. Have you thought about how to arrange them?" "
Shen Tingyang glanced at his son who was working as a secretary next to him, and said confidently: "I have also thought of some ways. First of all, the canal patrol soldiers can be directly converted into local suppressor soldiers. Now Mr. Yang Ge To fight in the provinces of the Central Plains, there is a lack of troops. These people can fight after being strictly trained and controlled.
The troops transported by the Guards Station can be transferred to the south and Tianjin to be responsible for port construction. Although it also costs money, after the money is spent, it can actually leave better docks and machinery. It is not like transporting grain every year. What will happen after the transport is completed? There are no real objects left.
The last ordinary seasonal farmers can move most of the people away, and the remaining small number of people can cultivate the rented fields left vacant by the relocated people, which can also solve part of the problem. They are originally farm workers to help subsidize the family. As long as there are few people Once you have more fields, just plant a few acres on site.
The part to be relocated is also the part with the largest number of people. Each government should not exceed 30,000 to 40,000 people each year. In recent years, I have calculated with Quanzi and some enlightened gentry in the south of the Yangtze River to deal with the famine and come up with some ways to make the existing acres of land available. , the mulberry fields are more intensively cultivated, absorbing more labor, and the total output is more productive, and should be able to absorb 60,000 to 70,000 people every year."
As he spoke, Shen Tingyang took out some drawings he had prepared in advance and explained to Chongzhen how to "build mulberry-based fish ponds in counties with developed sericulture industries."
In places that could only be used to grow mulberry and raise silkworms, more land preparation and excavation work can be done, especially by using the natural resources in areas with a lot of swamps and wetlands. By piling the land high and digging deep, it can increase the yield of the fields and produce an additional crop of fish. . Even without feeding, one acre of fish pond can naturally produce dozens to hundreds of kilograms of fish in a year.
Historically, mulberry fish ponds appeared in the late Qing Dynasty and modern times. They were not first developed in Suzhou, but in Guangdong. However, Shen Shuren has now made some technical breakthroughs in advance to make the land per unit area more productive. With more labor, it’s okay to start in Suzhou.