Daming Yuanfu

Chapter 1531 Years ago (Part [-])
Early the next morning, the people mentioned in Liu Xin's "secretariat" list were notified, knowing that they "will be reused" and needed to meet Gao Yushi tonight.Although the crowd didn't know what kind of reuse it was, they still made preparations according to their own conditions.

Gao Yushi still went to the Ministry of Households to be on duty, and received the two visiting ministers from the Ministry of Officials and the Ministry of War by the way.

Yang Wei, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, came to inquire about the prepayment of the salaries of hundreds of officials next year. The "pre-deposit system of official salary for the coming year" is a new measure after Gao Pragmatism's "collection of financial power", but in fact, similar practices have not existed before, but Gao Pragmatism has institutionalized and standardized it, and added it to the national finance of the Ministry of Households in the budget system.

Since the national budget system is a rather large overall task, all ministries need to contact and negotiate with the Ministry of Household Affairs before the year to reach an agreement.

Otherwise, if you don't take the initiative to come to look for it, then in the coming year, if your department doesn't have enough money, then it's nothing to do with my household department, and my household department has no losses.

Having said that, if the six departments, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, and the Dali Temple really do not have enough office funds, they will definitely be able to appeal to the emperor at that time, but this matter is embarrassing on the one hand, and on the other hand, it seems that the officials are not capable enough , everyone is definitely not happy for this scene to happen.

The Ministry of Officials and the Ministry of War are the basic boards of the School of Practical Studies, so you don’t have to worry about being stuck when you come to Gao Yushi. However, the budgets of these two departments this year are higher than in previous years, so you still have to come earlier to communicate with Gao Yushi.

The reason why the expenditures of these two ministries will increase is that the Ministry of Officials has actually been "harmed" by the Ministry of Households and the Ministry of War.

Let’s talk about the household department first. Since the household department took power and changed it to the system of four ministers, it officially became a “big household department”. There are many more officials in the two departments and thirteen divisions alone, and the overall staff of the household department has expanded by [-]%.Although these officials belonged to the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Ministry of Officials was responsible for the "staff work" of officials all over the world, and the Ministry of Officials had to approve the payment of salaries first. Therefore, Yang Wei had to explain the situation to Gao Yushi instead.

Fortunately, the thirteen divisions of the two administrations are quite different from the original provincial divisions. The biggest difference is that the personnel employed by the two administrations and the thirteen divisions implemented a well-known point of view of Gao Gong back then: there are few Jinshi but many candidates, and there are real talents but not elites among the candidates. There are many people in the article, so more people should be used.

This is of course a very pragmatic point of view. Chunwei only happens once every three years (unless Kaienke). Although the number of people in the pilot test is not fixed, it is usually about 300 people at a time. On average, only 100 people can "become officials" every year. people.

The Ming Dynasty is so vast, retired officials, losers in political wars, those who are worried about the system, those who have been crowned for some reason...all kinds of officials who have left their posts may exceed this number. What is the use of just a few scholars?

The real meaning of Jinshi is to be a high-ranking official, and then stimulate the people to learn, and the officials who really work at the grassroots level are actually the so-called "officials" in Ming Dynasty, and they are not in the "official" class.

But the problem also lies in the "official staff". In many places, the official positions are almost hereditary. Although this also allows the family to have sufficient "experience" in managing projects to a certain extent, it is also There are bound to be many disadvantages.

For example, a certain family is always responsible for the financial work of a certain county, no matter how the county's lords are exchanged, they will not be able to deeply "reform" the local ills, but the family will form an increasingly powerful local power, covering the sky with one hand , misbehavior.

Therefore, Gao Gong had been intending to change this situation during his lifetime, but unfortunately, many of his reforms were just the beginning, or he put forward a "guiding ideology" before he passed away.

Gao Yushi, as his successor, naturally wants to continue to promote many reforms, but just like reforms in later generations, reforms will always move from shallow waters to deep waters.

When it comes to deep-water areas, there are deep-water areas. Any practice is constantly developing, and new situations and new problems emerge one after another.

At present, the reform of the Real School of Ming Dynasty has basically entered the critical stage and the deep water area. The reason why some problems are difficult to advance and solve is because some are old problems left over from the system and mechanism, and some are new problems that have emerged in the process of progress. Some stem from ideological barriers, and some are constrained by the pattern of interests.

The problems encountered in the reform can only be solved by means of further reform.At this time, the two most critical points are: one is to have a clear-cut stand and a firm attitude;

Specifically, Gao Wushi mentioned the "four essentials" of the current practical school reform at a high-level meeting of the practical school a few days ago: the direction must be correct, the measures must be precise, the progress must be orderly, and the pace must be consistent.

The direction must be correct, which means that the real school reform must always remember its own purpose.The reform is not for the self-interest of the Real School and its officials, but to ensure that the country of Ming Dynasty can benefit from the reform, which is beneficial to both the country and the people.It can neither harm the public and benefit the private, nor can it favor a certain class of scholars, farmers, businessmen, and businessmen, leading to instability in the country and disordered governance.

Measures must be precise, which means that officials of the Practical School must be targeted in specific work measures and be able to solve problems practically.Gao Pragmatism attaches great importance to this point, and believes that this is a great difference between the School of Reality and the School of Mind.

He emphasized at the time that officials who are members of the Practical School must have the ability and attitude to solve problems.

Advancement must be orderly, which means that the advancement of reforms must be planned and not blind.For reform, one must know what to do first, and then do what to do first, and the first thing to do must be able to provide the basis for the next thing to do.

For example, he said that everyone knows the importance of customs tax now, but if there is no previous switch, Jinghua has not invested heavily in the construction of seaports, has not established a fleet to fight against pirates, and forced coastal private businessmen to give up smuggling into the country and become a "good business" If so, the money that can be collected in a year now may be the same as the previous one hundred thousand taels, how could it be nearly thirty times more?
The step must be consistent, which means that the practical school must maintain unity and work together when implementing policies, rather than haggling with each other to hold back.

This seems a bit like Gao Pragmatic wants to establish personal authority, but in fact his starting point is really not here.When the whole faction unites to do something, other factions or non-factional officials other than the Heart School must have to consider it even if they disagree.

Even the school of mind is usually not happy to have a violent conflict with the school of practice, which was very obvious during the reign of Shen Shixing.Of course, after Wang Xijue returned to Beijing, the style of the Mind School tended to harden day by day, but it didn't completely change.

Closer to home, except for the two ministers and the principal and deputy chief officers of each of the thirteen divisions of the two departments, the other officials in charge of specific affairs are all filled by alternate officials with the status of juren, and they are basically junior officials of eighth or ninth grade.

Although the number of these officials is large, their salaries are not high, and the officials' coming to Gao Yushi to discuss with them can only be regarded as a formality. After all, Gao Yushi's own organization cannot be ignored.

The situation at the Ministry of War is a bit more troublesome, because compared to last year and this year, their financial budget for next year has been greatly improved. Liang Menglong personally brought three of the four servants with him, so that the three The servants explained separately—the Rongzheng servants do not need to come, because the Beijing Camp is now responsible for the production and construction corps to contribute money and efforts, and the Ministry of Households does not intervene in that.

When the Ministry of War came to discuss the budget, the specifications were very high and the layout was full. But in the final analysis, the reason for the increase in spending was mainly due to three aspects that were highly pragmatic and had long been expected.

The first aspect, of course, is the pre-war reserves.It has been several years since Daming made it clear that he wanted to destroy Can Yuan in one fell swoop. Because the emperor had a firm attitude and exerted excessive force before, there was even a riot in the Northwest.

However, after Gao Wushi quelled the rebellion, the emperor simply handed over the financial work to him.Let him do finance, of course, not to let him veto this national policy, but to let him better implement this national policy.

In the Yongle Dynasty in the past, when Cheng Zu made five expeditions to Mobei, he had to carry out pre-war reserves with such a strong national power, let alone now?What's more, the Ming Dynasty's purpose this time is not to expel the Chahar Mongols, but to directly connect the pot, which obviously requires more power reserves.

Although there were already firearms troops in the Yongle Dynasty, the firearms at that time were incomparable to what they are now, and the proportion of firearms troops in the army was also incomparable, so the consumption was naturally even more incomparable.

Another very important point is that since the tribute from Alda, Daming has purchased more and more war horses from Tumed, and the imperial court's stock of war horses has increased year by year.The consumption of war horses is different from that of rough horses. Although there is no need to feed concentrated feeds for non-wartime food, they still have to be fed every now and then to avoid losing weight or deteriorating their physique.

However, for Daming, there are more troublesome things: although concentrated feed is expensive, if you eat grass, you need more horse farms. The former can be solved with money, but the latter is a bigger problem. Because there are not many racecourses in Daming.

If the Nine Sides were just the same as before, with a total of tens of thousands of cavalry, then the pressure on the pasture would not be too great, and they could basically pass it by.But the current situation is no longer what it used to be. The tribute has been awarded for 18 years. There are almost 10,000 cavalry on the Nine Frontiers of the Ming Dynasty, and the stock of war horses is as high as 30 horses. What racecourse can stand it?

Even if Gao Wushi won Daning last time, obtained part of the racecourse outside the customs, and then obtained the Hetao racecourse in Liaohe after the Battle of Southern Liaoning, he still cannot supply these more than 30 horses—not to mention that he cannot release all the cavalry In these two places!

As a result, the shortage of feed became increasingly a headache for the imperial court. It was not until Gao Wu promoted corn in Liaodong and succeeded that he saw the solution.

But then the problem turns back.The planting of corn was not in military settlements, but by calling on local war refugees and ordinary people to plant it, and a large part of it was obtained by opening up wasteland.According to the policy given by Gao Pragmatism at that time, the income from land reclamation belonged to the land reclamation person himself, and was exempted for three years.

In other words, although the imperial court could use corn to feed horses, and corn itself is extremely suitable for feeding horses, all of these cost money and had to be purchased from the owners of the cornfields.

The three-year exemption period for most corn fields has not yet passed. If the Ministry of War wants to use corn to feed horses, it has to allocate more money, and the Ministry of War itself has no financial rights left. Everything has to be found by the Ministry of Households. Pay the bill.

The money is highly pragmatic and he didn't intend to save it, but he still frowned after looking at the price.Later, he put forward a suggestion, that is, the Ministry of War came forward to suggest that the emperor issue an order to Liaodong, asking Liaodong to open up more corn fields.

Anyway, there are too many saline-alkali lands in Liaodong, and the yield of grain grown on those lands is really overwhelming. Although the advancement of rice in Hokkaido is accelerating, the cultivation of refined grains such as rice is more difficult, and it is not as easy to promote as corn.

In addition to Liaodong, he also suggested that the northern regions can use idle land to plant corn, and even some places that are not considered idle land but whose wheat production is not satisfactory can also be replanted.

According to his thinking, although the current price of corn is cheaper than that of rice and wheat, but the price is limited, and it should still take up the light of "eating fresh".As long as we continue to expand corn planting, when the total output rises, the price of this thing will definitely drop accordingly, and it will become a grain product that is not as important as commodity stability.

Originally, he didn't introduce corn to improve the taste of the people of Ming Dynasty. He introduced it as a life-saving food during the Little Ice Age. The price of this product almost caught up with rice and wheat.

Seeing that he had approved the money, the Ministry of War naturally said yes to his suggestion loudly. Liang Menglong immediately said that he would write an inscription when he returned to the Yamen, and he must patiently persuade the emperor.

The second place to spend money is the increase in training expenses.Gao Pragmatic is quite aware of this point, because he brought up this matter in detail when he was in the Ministry of War.

Guns and cannons are no better than swords. They are not things that some people are born to know how to kill when they pick them up.Although comparatively speaking, the time required to train a qualified musketeer is much shorter than that of a swordsman, the characteristic of muskets is that they consume gunpowder and the barrel itself is worn out, so the cost of training is far more than that of cold gunners. Arms troops.

But if you don’t train, it’s definitely not enough. For someone who doesn’t know how to use firearms, giving him the best gun on the battlefield is only equivalent to taking a fire stick. What’s the Wanli Second Type? Just take out the previous three-eyed blunderbuss Wouldn't it be more appropriate to make it, it's just hitting people anyway.

So although the money was quite a lot, the incremental part alone was as high as more than 20 taels, but Gao Pragmatically signed it without saying a word.

The last sum of money was a bit of a surprise: the Ministry of War actually "discovered with conscience", thinking that the life of the frontier soldiers was too difficult, so they planned to pay the frontier soldiers a little bit more—really just "a little", because the average person only added about five dollars a year. Money and silver.

However, Gao Yushi hesitated this time. The reason is not complicated: how many soldiers are there on the nine sides?Nearly 90 taels of silver per person a year, which is 45 taels of silver.
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(End of this chapter)