Emperor Ming Dynasty

Chapter 989 Rules
"Sir, would you like to have a boat of your own?"

With the noise all around him, Zhu Cunqu squinted his eyes and looked at the rather embarrassed middle-aged man in front of him.

He was wearing a slightly flat cotton coat. Although it was washed clean, its whitish color highlighted the tightness of his wallet.

The beard on his face was a bit messy, and the dark bags under his eyes were extremely deep, making him look extremely haggard.

It was clear that he had faced a survival situation.

Zhu Cunqu looked down at himself again.

Wearing a mink fur coat, silver moccasin moccasin boots, a beautiful jade belt around his waist, and a white paper fan with a jade pendant in his hand, he looked like a nobleman.

"Why?" Zhu Cunqu chuckled lightly, "I'm so like a playboy?"

"You misunderstood." The man's face turned red instantly, and then he stammered.

It turned out that his real name was Zhou Zude, and he often traveled between Beijing, Liaodong, and Heilongjiang, and his business was maritime trade.

But the sea is turbulent and dangerous. He originally had two ships, but now one capsizes, and the remaining one is also dilapidated and in urgent need of a lot of repairs.

Heilongjiang Province is vigorously developing the whaling industry, and there is no shortage of supporting ship repair yards, but it cannot be done without money.

He already owed a lot of debt because of the loss of goods, and now he is asking for help because he has no money to repair the ship.

As long as he can repair the boat and recruit some sailors, he can make a comeback and become a man of the world again.

It's a pity that people want to get his boat, but don't want to fund it.

He had no choice but to sell half of the ship's shares to some hot-eyed bullies when the Head Whale Conference was in full swing.

As long as you pay half of the money, you can get a complete ship, and harvest a caravan that has been operating normally. It is a big deal no matter how you look at it.

It's a pity that Zhu Cunqu has worked in the yamen for several months, and he has seen a lot of tricks of the yamen subordinates.

"I'll take half of the money. From now on, the ship will be handed over to you to operate. I just need to wait for the dividends?"

"Yes."

"Do you think I'm a fool?"

Zhu Cunqu was speechless: "The manpower is yours, the boat is yours, and the business is also done by you. I will lose money if I fail to keep everything!"

"You have a lot of money, and you can start doing business again. When the time comes, you will leave me a broken boat. I can't sell it?"

This is commonly known as borrowing the chicken to lay the egg.

In the end, let alone making money, Zhou Zude might make money, and take back the remaining half of the shares, no profit or loss.

Zhou Zude looked at the young master seriously and was very surprised.

It seems that he is only in his 20s, but he is so shrewd, which is really rare.

He smiled awkwardly, ready to continue fooling the other big head.

However, Zhu Cunqu stopped him: "How much does it cost to repair a boat?"

"A major repair is about 200 yuan."

"I am a big ship with thousands of materials. When I bought it, it cost 800 yuan. Now the market price has doubled."

Zhou Zude said hurriedly.

"Buy a few more ships to form a fleet."

Zhu Cunqu took him to the restaurant on the pier, where he ate a feast of fish.

Everything proliferates in spring. In the coastal city of Heilongjiang, there are all kinds of fish, cooking, steaming and frying, which makes people increase their knowledge.

Zhu Cunqu didn't like to eat fish at first, but when he tasted it, he felt that it tasted good.

Zhou Zude quickly explained with a smile: "In the mainland, the smell of fish needs green onion and ginger to get rid of, and it also costs oil, but in Heilongjiang, due to the prevalence of whaling industry, whale oil and fish oil are cheap, and ordinary people can use them .”

"In this way, all kinds of fish are delicious."

"Not bad." Zhu Cunqu sighed: "Heilongjiang is rich in products, if it is not a bit colder, it is really a good place to live."

"Hey, son, you just said that you want to form a fleet?"

Zhou Zude hurriedly licked his face and smiled.

"That's right." Zhu Cunqu said Shi Shiran, "What's so good about a boat?"

"To do it, at least five ships."

Zhou Zude was overjoyed when he heard the words, and his face flushed.

"It's not safe at sea. If you do offshore business first, it's not only safe, but also safe."

Zhu Cunqu ordered.

Hearing this, Zhou Zude smiled wryly and said: "I'm afraid you don't know that the offshore business is basically controlled by the people of the General's Mansion, so there are no leftovers left."

"I heard that Nu'ergan City will continue to expand. At that time, whether it is food or other materials, it will need to be transported north from Heilongjiang. Isn't this a good deal?"

"You?" Zhou Zude was shocked. He looked at the confident look of the young man in front of him, and didn't know what to say for a while.

At this point, it is a big background.

"I will go to Nu'er Gancheng and take up the post of governor. You have made a deal."

Zhu Cunqu said unhurriedly: "In addition, Nurgan City will be renamed Arctic City."

"In addition, I heard that at the mouth of the Heilongjiang River, when spring comes, those salmon will swim upstream and crowd the surface of the Heilongjiang River, and they can even step across the river. Is this true?"

"Of course it's true."

Zhou Zude said: "However, these fish can only be bought and sold in our Heilongjiang. There are only tens of thousands of people in total, and they can't be sold for much."

"However, I heard that on Sakhalin Island across the sea, there are hundreds of thousands of seals all over the place. If the governor can conquer this place, he can earn tens of thousands of yuan just by selling its skins every year."

Hearing this, Zhu Cunqu immediately became excited.

Sure enough, the Northeast is full of wealth.

Seeing his rise, Zhou Zude added fuel to the fire: "Do you know why the General's Mansion has always wanted to build a slave city?"

"Isn't it for the fur?" Zhu Cunqu narrowed his eyes.

"Hey, where is fur worth gold?"

Zhou Zude tempted: "It is rumored that there is alluvial gold in Heilongjiang, and you can sieve out gold by just looking for it. Many other people have even heard that there are many gold mines there."

"Pick it casually, that's a big deal."

"Otherwise, why did the General's Mansion go so far away? That's nearly two thousand miles!"

Zhu Cunqu's heart sank.

On this matter, Bai Wang didn't explain it to himself, maybe he didn't know, and it's more likely that he imagined himself being fooled.

After all, I came here to be gilded.

I don't know if the court knows?
With this in mind, he continued to head towards the Arctic City.

Two thousand miles away, the wind is smooth along the way, and it will arrive in seven or eight days.

At this time, there were no more than a hundred households in the Arctic city, and most of them were military members of the settlement. There were only a few merchants, and they were basically buying furs.

He restrained his mind and came to the mouth of Heilongjiang.

The rumored return of the salmon was not seen, but the turbulent Heilongjiang City was seen.

Compared with the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, Heilongjiang was extremely wide at this time. For thousands of years, no one controlled it, allowing it to do whatever it wanted, leaving behind countless lake islands and deltas.

A large number of birds stopped, tens of thousands, covering the sky and the sun.

Near those tributaries, many wolves, tigers and leopards could even be seen, causing a group of guards to be vigilant.

In any case, this is a wasteland with rich products.

"A long way to go!"

Zhu Cunqu couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

……

At this time, as the emperor of Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yixi was still preparing for the Northern Expedition in an orderly manner.

Tens of thousands of troops marched to the north and traveled thousands of miles. In the history of China, this was only comparable to Li Guangli's expedition to Dawan in the west.

And they have supplies from a number of small countries in the Western Regions, but now that Daming is going north, he is facing thousands of miles of desert grassland with no people inhabited.

At the same time, the Qing Dynasty was a country that combined slavery and feudalism, and its strength was extremely exaggerated.

It can be said that in the whole of Asia, only Daming can match it.

The minister stationed in Russia even stated that the Russian tsar was beaten so badly by the Manchus that he almost wanted to give up Siberia.

Zhu Yixi could have expected the difficulty of this trip.

Therefore, one should prepare two or three years in advance, not too hasty, otherwise it is easy to make mistakes.

In the huge Ming Dynasty, there are only about one hundred thousand cavalry, and they are basically distributed in the frontier army, because the cost of raising them is low.

The [-] fine cavalry raised in the Beijing camp are almost equivalent to a hundred thousand troops, and the horses eat better than people, even better than ordinary officers.

Therefore, slowly expanding the training of cavalry and finding out the direction of the path has become the top priority of the army.

At the same time, for the supply of military rations, this is a little bit of moving northward like ants moving.

Its cost is huge.

According to the estimation of the Ministry of Household Affairs, four stone grains are needed to reach Mobei from Beijing.

To put it simply, five shi of grain was transported to Mobei, and only one shi was left.

This is because camels eat miscellaneous foods and are not picky about their food. Otherwise, ordinary mules and horses would definitely consume more energy.

So many people went to the memorial to flatter them, saying that the emperor had the foresight to raise camels in advance, so that they could become a weapon for military supplies.

In fact, who would have known that this ant-like transportation would cost as much as 50 yuan per month.

If the decisive battle is held in the 20th year of Shaowu, that is, in the spring of next year, then the court will throw at least tens of millions of silver dollars.

And don't forget, there are losses in wars.

The loss of war horses, the consumption of food and supplies, and a large number of rewards, this war can't be completed without 3000 to [-] million silver dollars.

Counting on the so-called Fengjing Mansion in Beihai, it will not be able to recover its capital in 100 years.

But no one dared to say that at all.

The emperor has been in the imperial court for twenty years, and his power is extremely powerful. The chief minister of the cabinet has become a respondent, and he can't raise any objections at all. He can only check for deficiencies and make up for them.

Zhu Yixi didn't take it seriously, the war had to be done as soon as possible, the higher the upfront cost, the lower the cost.

Once it is delayed to later generations, the cost will rise exponentially.

In March of Yangchun, the capital is as lively as ever.

The Shaowu [-]th test will be held in April, and it will be a huge event for the entire Ming Dynasty and many dependent countries.

Because this year, the imperial court clearly proposed to allow Jinshi from various countries to participate in the examination.

In other words, the Jinshi of the subordinate state is equivalent to the Juren of Ming Dynasty, and has the qualifications to participate in the general examination.

This is far more convenient and quicker than taking the Guozijian exam before.

North Korea, Qin State, and Kang State have a total of two to 300 people, which was unimaginable in the past.

At the same time, due to the inclusion of Luzon, Ryukyu, Mobei, Northeast and other places in recent years, the number of scholars has continued to increase.

In order to stabilize the country and appease scholars, the imperial court decided to expand the number of Jinshi from 400 to [-].

As usual, according to the previous admissions in the North, Central, and South sub-lists, the number of places will be increased for each.

However, the imperial court took this opportunity to abolish the regulation of sub-volume recruitment, and instead adopted a new regulation for the payment of grain.

That is, according to the level of taxation in each province, it is divided into three classes, and the recruitment places are awarded respectively.

Nowadays, the taxation of the imperial court is divided into three classes in total, one point for poor provinces, two points for middle provinces, and three points for rich provinces.

One cent of silver is ten Wen.

In agriculture, it is light and light, but the collection of indirect taxes—commercial taxes—effectively made up for its losses.

In the tax regulations, poor and border provinces such as Anxi and Guizhou get one point; Henan and Hebei get two points; wealthy places like Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang get three points.

Regardless of the different prefectures and counties, the land is rich and thin, and taxes are collected according to the provinces.

The more complicated the taxation, the more the local government can exploit it.

There are 120 quotas for the three types of provinces, of which 200 are for poor provinces, [-] for middle provinces, and [-] for rich provinces.

On the surface, it seems biased, but in fact it has achieved a certain sense of justice.

Among the rich provinces in the country, only Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Hubei, Hunan, Shandong, and Guangdong are the eight provinces that pay one-third of the tax. Their population exceeds [-] million.

In other words, it has already accounted for more than half of the total population of Ming Dynasty, and it is worthy of the name to ask for half of the quota.

The ten provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Anxi, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Gansu, Ningxia, Suiyuan, and Chahar have a total population of less than 3000 million, accounting for 80 people, which is considered preferential treatment.

This completely highlights the rules of the imperial court: if you have more money and food, you are the uncle.

Because the province is poor, its population is also small.

The low taxation also proves that its land is barren, and there are few people who can naturally support it.

For example, the three provinces of Guangxi, Yunnan, and Guizhou have a combined population of less than 2000 million, while Jiangsu alone has a population of about [-] million.

In the past, poor places like Gansu, Ningxia, and Anxi wanted to compete with places like Shandong, Hebei, and Shanxi for the number of places in the Northern Scroll, and basically they could only be reduced to a foil.

Especially in Gansu and Yunnan, there has never been a champion in history, and the number of Jinshi is pitifully small, which is a pity.

Nowadays, rookies peck at each other, and everyone has a chance, which can be regarded as fair.

Of course, what is a scholar of the country has also been classified as a sub-province.

As soon as the edict of the rule of thirds came out, the whole city was shocked.

I don't know how many people are happy and regretful about this re-planning of interests.

For example, in Shandong, he originally belonged to Beijuan, and his writing style is one of the best in the north. He is basically a leader, and his life is very stable. Now he has to compete with Jiangsu, Jiangxi, and Anhui, which is simply fatal.

Some scholars clamored, but were quickly suppressed.

According to the tax payment, proposed by the emperor, agreed and formulated by the cabinet, who dares to be presumptuous?

Capital, Shandong Guild Hall.

It was time for the exam, and the Shandong guild hall was full of Juren who came to take the exam. It was overcrowded, and the guild hall had to rent several nearby houses for resettlement.

At this time, the head of the museum invited Zhao Mengshu, the right servant of the Ministry of Officials, who was originally from Jinan Prefecture, to the banquet.

Although he knew what was going on, Zhao Mengshu had to attend.

The entire Shandong Guild Hall has funded countless juren, and the relationship is extremely huge. Who dares to offend his fellow countrymen and lose his reputation?

"Shi Lang, how unfair is it to me, Shandong scholar?"

As soon as the head of the hall was seated, he immediately poured out bitter water, which can be described as endless.

(End of this chapter)