prosperous age

Chapter 431
After Emperor Jiajing launched a series of personnel adjustments, all six ministers and assistant ministers were occupied. At this point, the transfer of officials seems to have come to an end for the time being. The winners celebrate with each other, while the losers silently lick their wounds.

On this day, Yin Shixuan asked for leave at the palace for business, and Wei Guangde was in charge of handling the affairs of the palace, while Zhang Juzheng went to the Ministry of Households to ask for the monthly salary of the palace for the last two months.

Yes, the imperial court ran out of money again, not only the salaries of hundreds of officials were delayed, but also money owed to Prince Yu's Mansion.

What caused all this was naturally the sequelae of King Jing's ceremony of becoming a vassal.

In order to send King Jing away as soon as possible, the money from the household department was spent like water, and all the money was transferred as long as it did not violate the system.

"Shan Loan, are you here?"

In fact, there are not many things in the palace, most of them are internal affairs, and Li Fang is taking care of them, so Wei Guangde sneaks into his busy schedule to read a book.

But when he heard someone talking, Wei Guangde raised his head and saw King Yu stepping into the room, he hurriedly stood up and saluted, "My Highness."

"Where's uncle?"

King Yu went into the room to have a look, only Wei Guangde was in the room, and he didn't see Zhang Juzheng, so he asked.

"Brother Uncle has gone to the household department."

Wei Guangde replied with a wry smile.

"Hey, it's also difficult for Gao Yao."

What happened to all this, King Yu naturally knew, and he could only write a note to Gao Yao in his heart.

However, he still has to ask for the money of the palace, otherwise he will have to ask for the accumulated wealth of the family privately.

The current King Yu is very attached to his small treasury. After all, after a difficult and difficult time, he already knows the importance of money.

While talking, King Yu found a chair to sit down, and motioned Wei Guangde to sit down too.

"I don't know what your Highness is looking for."

Wei Guangde asked after sitting down.

After the little waiter brought the tea, King Yu picked up the teacup, gently swiped the tea leaves floating on the water with the tea cover, and said: "I listened to your lecture a few days ago, and I still have some questions that I still don't understand. If there is nothing to do today, I will talk about it." Ask."

"Your Highness, it doesn't matter."

Wei Guangde hastily answered.

"At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, my martial arts prospered. Why is it that the frontier army is no match for the Tartars now? What is the reason?"

The lessons that Wei Guangde gave to Yu Wang before, from Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang and Chengzu Zhu Di's several Northern Expeditions, at that time the Mongols were fighting all over the place looking for their teeth, so they had to flee far away, but since then, the Ming army has no advantage in combat power.

King Yu naturally had to consider these things. When he was in power in the future, would there be another Gengxu change? He didn't want to lose that person.

Now, it's time to find out the reason, and make some adjustments in the future to avoid being harassed by the Tartar soldiers in Gyeonggi again, making him sleepless and restless.

"It's just the two of us here, out of your mouth and into my ear."

King Yu looked at the door of the house, said something, and then said to Li Fang who followed behind him: "You go outside and guard, and no one is allowed to approach."

Wei Guangde felt a little bit bitter in his heart, some things were really hard to say, after all, the reason for the decline of the frontier army's combat strength, to put it bluntly, was that the money was not in place.

At the time of the founding of the country, there were also people who were greedy for ink, but they were very few. It's not like now, when soldiers can get three achievements and burn their incense.

When a soldier works his life, the money he gets is the money for his life. Whoever has no money will work his life, and his combat power will naturally be low.

In the Weisuo system, it is said that soldiers are not only guarding the frontier, but also guarding their own homes. However, those military settlements in the early Ming Dynasty were divided up by the powerful and officers. To put it bluntly, soldiers cannot support their families and defend their hometown. Can't shout the slogan.

It is no wonder that such a Ming army can have combat power.

However, King Yu had already accomplished this step. Seeing that Li Fang had gone out and guarded the door, although Wei Guangde hesitated in his heart, he still had to say something.

King Yu came here today, apparently not on a whim. Yesterday Yin Shizhen asked for leave and arranged for Zhang Juzheng to go to the Ministry of Households to urge the bank. It seems that King Yu is not confused.

While hesitating, Wei Guangde could only weigh the pros and cons and then said: "It is an indisputable fact that the combat power has declined, and the real reason is that the money is not in place."

Wei Guangde already had a speech at this moment, and planned to talk about the situation and seek some benefits for himself.

"From the founding of the Ming Dynasty to the present, salaries and salaries have remained the same. Except for the real thing, it is money. Now most of them are discounted to replenish money. But if it is said that the money is issued, the loss of officials and soldiers is not too big. It can be exchanged for the issuance of treasure notes."

"Uh-huh."

King Yu nodded slightly when he heard this, and hummed softly twice to show that he understood.

Understanding is understanding. If you don't want to make a big difference, it is estimated that there will be no change.

After all, it was designated as the ancestral system by Zhu Yuanzhang, and it needs to be changed.
In fact, if it is beneficial to officials, it is estimated that no one will talk about the ancestral system, but it will inevitably damage the interests of the court if it is beneficial to officials.

To put it bluntly, Zhese made trouble because the imperial court had no money.

Wei Guangde understands, and King Yu naturally understands, there are still treasures in his monthly salary, he has a lot of those things, and he can't use them.

As for Wei Guangde, it's not that he hasn't used his brains on banknotes, but the key point is that he has only a half-knowledge about these things. If he starts to replace gold and silver with banknotes like this, he's afraid that he will lose Daming by accident.

Just kidding, exchanging paper for gold and silver in the hands of gentry, I am afraid it is not forcing people to rebel.

But after Wei Guangde finished speaking, King Yu also understood what he meant. He didn't dare to think about raising his salary, so he nodded and it would be money.

"The one from last time was the general who was transferred to Guizhou."

King Yu suddenly said again.

"Yu Dayou."

Wei Guangde hastily replied.

"Yu Dayou, but he can win battles by taking people out, and it's better to defeat the strong with the weak."

Wei Guangde said that soldiers were paid little money, so they could not win battles. Yu Dayou's soldiers were no different from other frontier soldiers, but he was able to win battles. Isn't this a bit contradictory?

"At this stage, Datong soldiers are probably the best at fighting."

Wei Guangde did not deny it, but he had to explain it, otherwise King Yu would easily go astray.

"When the Datong army went out to fight, although the military pay was the same as other frontier troops in the past, most of the captures in Bansheng were distributed to the Guan soldiers. These people worked hard to get the equivalent of several years of military pay, the full amount. "

Speaking of this, Wei Guangde thought about it and said: "Afterwards, it will be easier to fight against the chasing soldiers of our army. If you lose, your previous efforts will be wasted, and if you win, you will gain both fame and fortune. Naturally, the soldiers are willing to work hard."

The seizure in Bansheng City was very rich, but the handover was limited, all because of Li Wenjin's relationship.

Well, the benefits are divided, without the approval of the local civil servants, how can the chief soldier and the generals dare to distribute it directly like that time.

Because of Li Wenjin's meritorious service in the battle, he has been promoted to the Governor General, and the Datong Army has received money from top to bottom. It can be said that everyone is happy, but no one has reported it to the capital.

Local civil and military are good, who would feel uncomfortable, but in the border town.

The Beijing officials naturally knew the twists and turns, but they chose to turn a blind eye at this time. After all, they won, and there was no need to grab food. They had plenty of ways to get money.

Yu Wang fell into silence, this is really difficult.

Those who want to serve as soldiers have to give money to fight hard, but what the court lacks most is money.

Wei Guangde only talked about money, of course there is a reason, one is that he hopes that King Yu will ascend the throne in the future, and see if his salary can be raised. He doesn't care, but it doesn't mean that everyone else is like this, and there are more poor officials in Beijing.

In the future, if this wish is fulfilled and the news spreads, he will lose a lot of favors.

Of course, his purpose is more than that, but he can't be too eager, it depends on the timing, and it is best for King Yu to start the conversation.

"From ancient times to the present, have all the powerful soldiers in the world been like this?"

King Yu frowned and asked, he was a little confused, this is not in line with Confucianism, everything is money.

The emperor used Confucianism as a cover to make the people of the world believe in it, but the current situation is that the people don't believe in propriety, justice, integrity, loyalty and filial piety. What's wrong with this?
"I'm not sure, but I think it's probably the case."

Wei Guangde replied.

"Leaving aside, let's talk about the Yue family army in the previous dynasty. Jin Guo said, 'It's easy to shake the mountain, but it's hard to shake the Yue family army'. But how did the Yue family army get its combat power? It's not piled up with money. The generous military rewards "

"Why is Emperor Song so rich?"

Hearing Wei Guangde talking about the Yue Family Army, King Yu suddenly thought of something, and hurriedly asked.

When Wei Guangde heard King Yu's question, he hesitated a little before saying: "Your Highness, according to the documents of the previous dynasty that I checked, the people of the Song Dynasty focused on business, and their huge financial revenue mainly came from commercial taxes, accounting for about [-]% of the total annual revenue.

Before Jingkang, the annual income of the Song Dynasty was about 7000 million guan, and after that, the annual income exceeded [-] million guan, all supported by commercial taxes."

Wei Guangde's family does not do business, and although he has a good relationship with merchants in Jiujiang, he doesn't think that his actions are ruining the jobs of those merchants.

At this time, Western countries have begun to encourage the development of industry and commerce on a large scale and collect taxes, but they have not seen any shrinkage of commerce.

That being the case, as long as the business tax is not heavy, it will not have any impact on business, and the business tax is collected, so that the imperial court can provide policy support for business.

The reason why the fiscal revenue in the Southern Song Dynasty was higher than that in the Northern Song Dynasty was that it encouraged commerce, especially did not restrict the development of maritime merchants, and a large number of commodities were sold to the West. Quanzhou and Guangzhou were the main trading ports at that time.

After hearing the figure of 7000 million guan reported by Wei Guangde, King Yu's eyes began to light up, and he straightened up immediately after hearing the annual income of Wanwan guan in the Southern Song Dynasty.

What is the annual income of the Ming Dynasty, if you add a piece of color, it is 3000 million taels or 3000 million guan. The situation of the Song Dynasty after Jingkang, of course, King Yu is very clear.

"How am I heading?"

King Yu quickly calmed down after being excited. He knew that the Ming Dynasty also collected commercial taxes, but it was obviously not comparable to Song Shi.

Tens of thousands of crowns correspond to 7000 million crowns of business tax, which is more than the entire annual revenue of Daming, but the population and land of Daming far exceed those of the Song Dynasty at that time.

"At the beginning of the founding of our dynasty, the Taizu set a tax of [-] per cent, but at that time, we had just experienced the flames of war, a lot of waste was waiting to be built, the people were still struggling, and businesses were dying, so even if the tax was set high, no tax could be collected.

Moreover, although Taizu did not value commercial tax, he still collected it through the local tax department and Hebo, and collected taxes from the monopoly trade of circulating commodities. It can be seen that he did not give up commercial tax in fact, but at that time Under the big environment, it is true that not much tax money is collected. "

"It makes sense. I know about Yaxing and Hebo."

King Yu nodded.

"The taxation is relatively low now. It should not be that the collection is low. In recent years, my Ming Dynasty has a prosperous business. You can see it by looking at the boats passing by on the Grand Canal. The annual customs tax is 20 taels."

After hesitating for a moment, Wei Guangde continued: "The main reason why there are not many taxes is that most of the collected taxes are not transported to the imperial court, but into the treasury of the vassal princes in various places."

"Ok?"

Hearing that the confiscated money had entered the vassal's mansion, King Yu blushed immediately, obviously a little angry.

Seeing this, Wei Guangde immediately explained: "These are rewards from previous generations of emperors."

Speaking of this, Wei Guangde felt that it would be better to speak clearly, so he simply used the Xingwang Mansion to explain the matter, so he continued: "In the sixth year of Hongzhi, Emperor Xiaozong Hongzhi issued a decree to give Xingwang the banknotes of Hebo in Anlu Prefecture. "

Hearing what Wei Guangde said, King Yu's expression eased a little. It turns out that his family also earned this money back then, so it's hard to say anything.

Who is King Xing mentioned by Wei Guangde?
Not even his grandfather.

When Wei Guangde and King Yu were talking about the taxation of the Song Dynasty in the palace, in the Yongshou Palace in Xiyuan, the two cabinet ministers, the Ministry of Rites, and the Minister of the Ministry of Households gathered together, but the atmosphere was obviously not happy.

"There is no money in the internal treasury, and I want to use the new money from Yunnan. Why is it so difficult?"

Emperor Jiajing was in a very bad mood at the moment. The court had no money, and his internal treasury had no money now. It was also because he knew that the court was poor, so he wanted to withdraw the new money from Yunnan. Unexpectedly, it was given to him by Gao Yao, the Minister of the Household Department. Stopped it, it's no wonder that I'm in a good mood.

"Your Majesty, the new money in Yunnan has already been used for a long time. It is for Beijing's border salary and not for storage. If Your Majesty uses it, the officials in the capital can bear with it, but what about the border town's military salary?"

Gao Yao hurriedly stood up and answered.

"Squeeze and squeeze together, and you can always find a way."

Emperor Jiajing replied, and then he spoke forcefully: "The two capitals will issue [-] taels of silver to the Ministry of Industry for casting."

"His Majesty."

Gao Yao said anxiously, but before he could continue talking, the Minister of Rites, Yuan Wei, stood up and said: "Gao Shangshu, the internal treasury is short of money, and the Ministry of Households should first ensure the use of the internal treasury."

Gao Yao saw Yuan Wei interjecting at this time. He is a minister of the Ministry of Rites, and the money does not belong to him. When the time comes, all the ministries will look for him for salary and not him. What is the point of jumping out to make sarcastic remarks at this time?
Send a certificate to the emperor?
Immediately, they argued with Yuan Wei, while Yan Song and Xu Jie stood aside and watched coldly.

Yuan Wei, they naturally won't lose face, and it's hard to say anything about Gao Yao, after all, they hold the money bag.

One lucky minister, one powerful minister, the emperor didn't name them, and they didn't bother to intervene.

Yuan Wei and Gao Yao quarreled for a long time in Yongshou Palace over the use of money in the inner treasury, but in the end Emperor Jiajing did not let go and insisted on sending 2 taels of silver to the palace for use.

In the past, when encountering such things, it was always Yan Song who came forward to make peace, but now this role has become Yuan Wei.

Prince Yu's Mansion.

"That is to say, if I open Quanzhou and Guangzhou ports in Ming Dynasty, I will also receive 200 million banknotes a year?"

At this moment, Wei Guangde has already told King Yu the approximate customs revenue of the Southern Song Dynasty he found.

In the Southern Song Dynasty, the export of commodities was collected according to ten taxes and one tax. According to the literature records, the annual customs revenue was about 200 million Guan.

"If the silver method at that time is interchangeable with the current one, it should be more than one million taels."

Wei Guangde replied, "However, the imperial court has market ships, so the income will be much less, and there are also tooth dealers who plunder and cheat."

(End of this chapter)