Emperor Ming Dynasty

The mountain wind drifted in through the window, blowing the curtains, bringing a little coolness.

Zhu Mou felt a chill down his spine and panicked, but he forced himself to calm down and said, "I am ashamed, old minister."

"Nothing to be ashamed of."

Zhu Yixi would say casually: "After all, the position of chief assistant is different from decades ago. At that time, everything was said and done, but now it needs to be contested."

Such words made Zhu Mou's heart sink even more.

"By the way, how old are you?"

"Veteran is six out of fifty this year." Zhu Mou looked unwilling, and the smile on his face seemed bitter no matter how you looked at it.

"Feng Xianzong has just turned [-], Du Yinxi is [-] out of [-], Yan Yingyuan is [-] out of [-], although in the folk it is the year of playing with grandchildren, but in the officialdom it is the same time."

Zhu Yixi sighed, didn't talk to him any more, and sat down on his buttocks: "When next year, you will retire!"

Let Zhu Mou be the chief assistant for a year, with a beginning and an end, which can be regarded as his wish.

Time is too short and too easy to hurt.

Zhu Mou was shocked and knelt down: "The old minister understands."

At this time, he raised his head, his eyes full of aggrieved: "Your Majesty, I blame Feng Xianzong for my fault. This man has a vicious mind, has been in the court for more than twenty years, and has a deep connection..."

"All right."

Zhu Yixi looked at him disappointedly.

At this point, he still wanted to pull Feng Xianzong down as well. It seems that Zhu Mou changed the moment he became the chief assistant.

A person who was broad-minded in the past has now become narrow-minded and selfish, and he is not responsible.

Thinking of this, he felt some regret in his heart, Zhu Mou was not suitable to be the chief assistant at all, and he was forced to be promoted, which ruined him instead.

"Go on, guard the last few months, start well and end well."

Zhu Mou had no choice but to back down.

After he left, Zhu Yixi sat slumped on the recliner, relaxed all over, and his thoughts continued to spread.

Although Zhu Mou didn't pay attention to the words arranged by Zhu Mou, but at this time they kept echoing in his mind, and he couldn't forget them at all.

If you think about it carefully, the reason is also clear.

When Feng Xianzong was in Nanjing, he held the post of Shangshu. He has been circulating among various ministries for 20 years, and then he entered the cabinet logically.

The relationship network that has been compiled for 20 years is extremely scary.

Although Zhu Mou had character flaws, fundamentally Feng Xianzong was powerful, threatening the prestige of the chief assistant and forcing Zhu Mou to do his best to suppress it.

"Replacing Zhu Mou and finding someone else to take over, the consequences will be the same as Zhu Mou's, but if Feng Xianzong takes over, what will be his prestige in the cabinet?"

Zhu Yixi's complexion changed slightly, and he shook his head immediately: "I have been in power for twenty years, and I am also the founding king, why should I avoid civil servants?"

Having said that, he adjusted Feng Xianzong's five-year term in the cabinet to two or three years in his mind.

The founding heroes, civil servants and military officials, have become more and more threatening as time goes by.

Imperial power is sensitive by nature, and always likes to nip danger in the bud.

On the way back to the cabinet, Zhu Mou's spirit did not diminish, but became more and more inflated.

But when he arrived at Wenyuan Pavilion, he calmed down instantly when he saw the cabinet secretary in a hurry and the smiling elders in the cabinet.

Calm, with head held high, Shoufu is full of momentum.

……

After a while, Jin Bao, Minister of the Ministry of Finance, came to see him.

By virtue of his ten years in power in Luzon, Jinbao cultivated another source of income for Daming, and was promoted to a minister. He can be said to be a top figure in the officialdom.

The Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, and the Ministry of Households are all divided into three from the previous Ministry of Households.

Among them, the Ministry of Civil Affairs is only assigned to civil affairs such as household registration, acres of land, and territory.

The Ministry of Households is in charge of the storage of money and food, the withdrawal of salaries, and all expenses need to be registered with the Ministry of Households, so it is also called Duzhishangshu.

However, the Ministry of Households still has a big killer in its hands: Baoyuan Bureau.

That is the Mint.

It belongs to the cross-administration of the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Households. The silver, copper, and even gold coins minted every year cost millions of dollars, which can be said to be first-class and fast-moving.

The Ministry of Finance is unusual. It is the most important of the three ministries. It is in charge of the collection of commercial taxes, agricultural taxes, and customs duties.

Therefore, the Ministry of Finance has set up supervisory personnel in [-] counties across the country. The older ones are a dozen or so, and the younger ones are three or five. They are all old officials.

These people alone exceed ten thousand people.

At the same time, Daming lived within his means, and the budget planning was basically done by the Ministry of Finance, and its power could be seen in general.

It is precisely because of this that it has become a practice for the chief assistant of the cabinet to be in charge of these three ministries.

Jin Bao is 62 years old and a native of Zhejiang. Under the blessing of power, he is already in good spirits, and his gray temples are negligible.

"Your Majesty—" Jin Bao bowed his hands.

"Pingshen!" Zhu Yixi asked curiously: "As far as I know, the Ministry of Finance should be the busiest at this time. The collection of taxes in all provinces makes your Ministry of Finance very busy. Why did Jin Qing's family come to me?"

"I came here this time because of the money."

Jin Bao confided helplessly.

It turned out that the imperial court's taxation has been rising year by year in the past few years. It was originally a great joy, but everything can't have advantages, and there are many disadvantages.

Most of the provinces in the country collect money, and a small part is grain, which means that a large amount of money is drawn from the people to the court.

The key point is that the courtiers are like hamsters, insecure, hoping to hoard as much money as possible, rather than thinking about how to spend it.

In this way, there is a shortage of money among the people.

"As far as I know, the Baoyuan Bureau casts no more than 500 million copper coins and one million silver coins a year, and the imperial government's commercial and agricultural taxes this year are several million more than last year."

"The money minted is more than the money received."

"Moreover, very little money is spent..."

Jin Bao sighed: "There are [-] million people in the world. The silver and copper overseas are simply not enough to support civilian use."

Simply put, it's deflation.

Originally, silver and copper were continuously imported from overseas every year, but the rapid development of commerce and the delay in minting money were not enough.

As for the previous military tickets and food stamps, they have been gradually eliminated, and only solid metal can be trusted.

Zhu Yixi's heart moved. The customs have been collecting tariffs for these years, and the internal money can only be brought in and out, hoarding hundreds of millions of silver dollars. This is also the main reason for the money shortage.

There is no shortage of money in the world, but the imperial court hoards a lot of money and keeps collecting taxes, resulting in less money among the people.

Jin Bao exaggerated: "In the coastal provinces, the price of a bucket of grain is [-] to [-] yuan, but in Shanxi, Sichuan and other inland areas, the bucket of grain is only [-] yuan. Food is cheap and money is expensive."

"Many businessmen had to take out loans in order to pay their taxes, and paid high interest to borrow money to tide over the difficulties. The common people vividly called it a bridge."

"Paying taxes is becoming increasingly difficult for businessmen, so tax evasion is on the rise..."

Hearing what he said, Zhu Yixi said in a deep voice, "I wonder if the Qing family has a plan?"

"The minister's intention is to spend silver to buy grain and cloth from the people, so that the silver coins can return to the people."

"In addition, merchants can borrow cloth and silk to pay taxes, saving them the trouble of paying taxes."

There are two suggestions, one is to spend money, and the other is to let Bubo pay taxes.

These are reasonable and very understandable plans.

Zhu Yixi nodded.

In fact, it is normal for the people to be short of money, because most of the grass markets are basically barter, and there are very few opportunities to use copper coins, and ordinary people are used to it.

Therefore, those who lack the most money are businessmen.

"I don't know if Qing Qing knows the bank notes?"

Suddenly, the emperor asked.

"I know it." Jin Bao said casually, "Some private banks will take care of the money, and then exchange it with bank notes, which is convenient for merchants to travel between the north and the south."

"So, if the silver coins of the Bank of the World are taxed, will the merchants still be short of money?"

Zhu Yixi laughed.

"However, they have no money in the bank."

"Businessmen are just short of cash, not out of money."

Zhu Yixi said softly: "Their property, land, and treasures can all be mortgaged to get money, as long as the world's money bank pays for them."

"At that time, the imperial court will directly take the bank notes to Tianxia Bank to get them."

"Businessmen are also spared the trouble of being short of money."

Jin Bao opened his mouth, and was about to say more, but he couldn't say anything.

All the money houses in the world, as long as they are not fools, understand that this is the private property of the emperor.

Of course, it also plays a semi-official role.

For example, if the imperial court allocates money to relieve the victims of disasters, the local Tianxia Bank will directly transport the money from the warehouse, without having to travel thousands of miles from Beijing or provincial capitals.

It also means that in just a few days, the local area can provide relief to the victims.

At the same time, the salaries of local officials (principal officials above the eighth rank) are also directly drawn from the Tianxia Bank, which saves a lot of effort.

The same is true, the Ministry of Finance will also send a lot of money to Tianxia Bank to escort, and its powerful security team and bodyguards will jointly escort it, as long as you pay some shipping fees.

Now that the world's banks continue to expand and can pay taxes on their behalf, they are probably getting bigger and bigger.

"Your Majesty, there are too many merchants. I am afraid that the world's banks will not be able to bear it. It is better to let those big banks, such as Shanxi merchants' banks and Huizhou merchants' banks, participate..."

Jin Bao tentatively suggested.

The customs is the emperor's cornucopia, and the bank is also the money bag. The two basically communicate with each other, so there is no shortage of money at all.

Obviously, he didn't have the peace of mind he imagined for Tianxia Qianzhuang.

It can also be said to avoid a single family.

"It's okay." After careful consideration, Zhu Yixi also agreed to this proposal.

Dominance of one family is not spring, it is good for a hundred families to let go.

As for whether those banks will pay?

Hmph, the bank has no money, isn't the owner's property still there?

In feudal society, merchants were no different from fat sheep.

"Your Majesty is wise!" After solving the problem of money shortage, a smile appeared on Jin Bao's face.

The businessman was unable to pay the tax, rescued tax evasion, and then the tax was reduced. He, the minister, had to bear the responsibility. Now that the crisis has been resolved, he is naturally happy.

The monarchs and ministers chatted about Lu Song, and talked about the problem of fewer Han people.

Jin Bao said truthfully: "In the beginning, there were only ten thousand Han people in Lusong, but now there are one hundred thousand. Although it is still not many, it has multiplied several times."

"If you want to completely turn it into a province, you can only imitate the Northeast, recruit as a corps, and reclaim wasteland for planting..."

He said that the reason why the expected population has not been expected in these years is because of the behavior of the Han people returning to their hometowns.

That is to say, many people came to Luzon, just to make money to support their families. Once they made a fortune, they basically went home to buy fields and build houses. It was difficult to settle down in Luzon.

Only those poor people had no choice but to take their families over.

Moreover, Luzon does not develop land, and compared with Qi in the south, it is not attractive at all, so fewer Han people settled down.

In the past, there were so many Han Chinese in Nanyang, and it was difficult to go home due to the long distance;

"Make money in Luzon, spend money in your hometown, these are the common sayings of those Fujian people."

Goldberg spoke.

In the final analysis, it is difficult to rely on self-conscious development, as long as policies are used to guide them to emigrate.

Hearing this, Zhu Yixi sighed.

He thought that the barren land in Fujian was enough to support the migration of Fujian people to the south, but he never thought that they would return instead.

It's better for the poor, and if they move, they will drag their families with them.

……

Anhui, Anqing Prefecture, governs Huaining County.

Anqing City is surrounded by mountains to the west and the Yangtze River to the east. After being surrounded by the two, this place has become a first-class dangerous place.

Tianxia Qianzhuang is located in the east of the city, close to the wharf, covers an area of ​​nearly ten acres, and has thirty rooms. It is also a first-class mansion in the whole of Anqing.

The four big characters of Tianxia Qianzhuang in gold stamping can attract almost all pedestrians along the road.

Suddenly, a team of yamen servants, a dozen or so people, and eight carriages walked slowly to Qianzhuangkou.

Zhao Dianli led the way, and pedestrians along the way bowed their heads to give way, not daring to approach.

"Hey, move it away for me, what's the point of putting it in front of the door!" At this time, a man came out from the Qianzhuang Village, wearing a satin robe and glasses, with his head held high and his chest held high, showing no fear of these subordinate officials:

"If you block the guests, your fortune will be blocked."

Dianli Qian had a smile on his face, without the usual arrogance: "All right."

"Do you wink? It's blocking people's business, so move it to the side."

As he said that, he took out the account book from his pocket: "This is the commercial tax of Anqing Mansion this year, please take a look."

"En!" The man with glasses picked up the abacus handed over by someone else: "Let's just count it! Don't count too short."

"There are many people on this main road, why not go into the courtyard?"

Qian Dianji said hurriedly.

"It's not going to work. It's hard to tell when you enter the courtyard, and you have to be in front of the public."

After all, dozens of baskets were put out after a dozen scales.

The people in the bank were also fearless, they just did what they said, opened the box directly, and counted on the spot.

The abacus tinkled, and the weight kept rising and falling.

After a long time, until an hour later, the weighing and counting were all the same, and the man with eyes showed a smile:
"The commercial tax of Xia Sanyue in Anqing Mansion is 12 yuan in total, but it's correct?"

Dianli Qian wiped the sweat from his forehead: "That's right, that's all."

Immediately, a group of people and horses came out from the side of the street, about thirty people, ten carriages, with swords and bows on their backs.

"This trip is for the Shunfeng Escort Agency." The man with eyes introduced: "It's four hundred miles from Anqing Mansion to Luzhou Mansion, and it's up to them."

Kong Wu's powerful escort came over, cupped his hands and said, "According to the regulations, we charge 50 yuan for every 12 yuan transported. This trip is 810 yuan, so we will calculate it as 12 yuan, which is 600 yuan."