Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 533 Data Governance
"Congratulations to Your Majesty..."

At dusk, with the sound of singing and singing, Zhu Gaoxu rode on a horse to Qianqing Palace under the eyes of the palace ministers and Zhu Zhanhe.

"Your Highness, I'll take my leave..."

Yang Rong, Yang Pu, Xue Xuan, and Chen Chang bowed to Zhu Zhanhe, while the three who stayed behind were Wang Ji, Jiang Huai, and Lu Yu.

"Go home and rest a lot after work."

Zhu Zhanhe comforted them a few times and then let the four of them leave.

After the four people left, he walked back to Wuying Hall. On the long table in the main hall of Wuying Hall were hundreds of memorials to be processed.

During the Hongwu period, it was normal for two to three hundred memorials to be produced every day. More than four hundred volumes were already considered a heavy state affairs.

During the Yongle period, the number of memorials increased sharply with the expansion of territory and actual control. More than 300 volumes were normal, and occasionally it could exceed 500 volumes.

By the twelfth year of Hongxi's reign, it was normal to produce more than 600 memorials every day, and in recent days, the number has even reached more than 700.

"If one is not enough, use two. If two are not enough, use three. You can always win."

This is the result of Zhu Gaoxu delegating power to the six departments. If he had not delegated power, it would be normal for the memorials to exceed a thousand volumes every day.

Jiang Huai did not hide this, but said:
"The tax revenue potential of the imperial court has been developed, and now the imperial court has experimentally obtained two financial insurances: bank savings and national debt. If you include the treasury, there are three."

"In other words, less than 85.6 million households have depositors, accounting for 14.4% of the savings, and the remaining million depositors only account for %. On average, each household only has seven savings."

"I have read the financial report of the Financial Department directly under the Ministry of Accounts a few days ago. Currently, Daming Bank has more than 7,674,000 depositors and more than 286,270,000 savings."

"Although the place where the King of Song established his vassal is in the east, whether it will affect the gold and silver mining in the west in the future remains to be discussed."

Wang Ji opened the topic with Dongzhou, and Lu Yu followed up: "The Dongguo exists in Dongzhou, and now it is building the Song Dynasty palace. Dongzhou transports more than 7 million gold and silver to the imperial court every year, accounting for 12% of the imperial court. of taxes.”

As long as the basic market is not in chaos, even if there is chaos overseas, and even the navy will start to make trouble, Ming Dynasty will launch hundreds of warships a year and cultivate the strength of tens of thousands of navy to regain its territory.

Since his position as prince was very stable no matter how he looked at it, Zhu Zhanhe was not surprised that Wang Ji would seek refuge with him.

"At the moment, Meng Mao from Beizhou is on our side, as is Liu Yongcheng from the Ceylon Guard in India, and Chen You from the Persian Guard is also on our side."

As Zhu Zhanhe sat down, he asked about Jiang Huai and Lu Yu without avoiding Wang Ji, because he had already won over Wang Ji through the relationship between Jiang Huai and Wang Ji.

Zhu Zhanhe sat down, and Wang Ji and others naturally did not sit down easily. They just stood in the row on the left, lined up by Wang Ji, Jiang Huai, and Lu Yu.

"The Anshi Rebellion was a conflict between the central government and local warlords, and the conflict in the imperial court in the future will inevitably be the conflict between the seventeenth chief secretaries of the two capitals in Zhongzhou and the six overseas propaganda and comfort departments."

Therefore, in Jianghuai's view, the key is to manage the basic structure of Zhongzhou's two capitals and seventeen chief secretaries, and at the same time limit the outflow of talents, so that the basic group can maintain its technological and production advantages over overseas territories.

"Do you understand everything about Dongzhou, Nanzhou, India Xidang, Beizhou, and Kunlunzhou?"

"As long as their employment needs are met and their families are monitored at the same time, there is no fear of them going overseas."

"The central government must maintain a strong military strength to deter the Overseas Propaganda Department, and then gradually civilize overseas, setting up prefectural and county officials overseas, and adding troops such as the Military and Horse Department."

"For the Overseas Propaganda Department, the only thing that must be strictly controlled is to follow His Majesty's plan and limit the outflow of middle school students."

"Three of the six overseas missionaries have supported us, but the most important one is actually Dongzhou."

The four people present all understood this truth, but Jiang Huai needed to explain exactly how to do it.

Wasn't the premise of the Anshi Rebellion also the two disastrous defeats of the Tang Army in the southwest, which allowed many careerists to see the weakening foundation of the Tang Army?

"Among them, there are only about 3,600 households with savings of more than 1,000 guan. The average savings are more than 8,400 guan, and the total savings are more than 30 million guan."

Jiang Huai's idea was very simple. He had seen the deterrent effect Wang Xuan had on the local area by taking charge of the military and guarding the local area in Longchuan.

Among the three, he was closest to Jiang Huai and trusted him the most, so he really wanted to know what Jiang Huai would say.

"The current situation is different from the Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty. Although the overseas territories can bring nearly 20 million yuan in tax revenue every year, judging from their strength, they only need to send any fleet of the navy to take them down."

"Yang Shuo of Dongzhou is impartial, so is Jiang Gui, the ambassador of comfort in Nanzhou. The new ambassador of Kunlun Island, Cao Yi, has not yet taken up his post, so he can win over him."

Lu Yu spoke and reminded Zhu Zhanhe that he needed to pay attention to his dozen brothers.

Because of this, he had to increase the number of palaces and pavilions to help him deal with memorials.

"In addition, I think we can set up professional schools in various industries to better manage these people."

Zhu Zhanhe nodded in agreement and turned his attention to Jianghuai.

The relationship between the imperial court and the Overseas Xuanwei Division and the chieftains in Longchuan and Yunnan Xingdu Divisions are the same.

"But looking at the problem from this savings alone, we can see many problems."

Facing Zhu Zhanhe's gaze, Jiang Huai bowed after pondering and said:
"In fact, you don't have to worry about overseas territories. What you should mainly worry about are the 17 chief secretaries of the two capitals and the imperial college in the land of Zhongzhou in the Ming Dynasty."

Facing the inquiry, Wang Ji bowed first and said: "In the five places, the imperial court has 13 cities, 6 guards and 7 stations stationed respectively, with more than 40,000 and 600 troops."

"In addition, judging from His Majesty's attitude, Dongzhou and Beizhou may have to be crowned kings in the future. These also need to be paid attention to."

After Jiang Huai finished speaking, he took a deep breath before continuing: "Of course, this does not explain the whole problem. After all, the people of the country have always had the habit of hiding money. Moreover, having the courage to trust the bank does not mean that you have to save all your money and food in the bank. ”

In the same way, if the central government suffers some blow and declines, let alone the Xuanwei Department, even some overseas Baihu and Qianhu offices will seek independence.

If the central government had strong military and power, it would not be able to fight with the imperial court based on the foundation of the Overseas Propaganda and Welfare Department.

"There are 570,000 households with savings of more than 100 guan, with an average of 226 guan and total savings of more than 128 million guan."

"After excluding depositors with savings of more than 100 guan and less than 10 guan, the Financial Department still has more than 1.4 million savers. The average savings is 63 guan, and the total savings are more than 88 million guan."

With Wang Ji joining, they will have more power in the Ministry of War controlled by civilian officials in the future. After all, once Wang Ji withdraws from the cabinet, it will be time to serve as Minister of War.

"This report has been made by His Majesty to the Finance Department since the fifth year of Hong Xi's reign. What is noteworthy is that before the case of Yiweiyan Li, His Majesty specifically asked the Finance Department to prepare this report based on data on an ad hoc basis."

"However, compared with the current situation, before the Yan Li case, there were more than 64 households with savings of more than yuan, and the total savings were about % of the savings in the same year."

"In addition, there are only about 1,400 depositors with savings of more than 1,000 guan, and only more than 9 million guan in savings."

"After the Yan Li case, there are only about 39 depositors with savings of more than yuan, and the savings have dropped to about %."

"But at the same time, the number of depositors with savings of more than 1,000 guan has increased sharply, and has increased to about 3,000 households."

Jiang Huai was explaining something through the Finance Department's report, and after he said it, everyone understood the meaning of his words.

"The reason why the number of depositors with savings of more than one thousand guan has increased sharply is simply because those people want to let His Majesty know their attitude. These 30 million guan are money and food that the imperial court can embezzle at will."

Wang Ji told a fact, and Jiang Huai nodded with a heavy heart.

Lu Yu also spoke after hearing this: "If His Majesty uses this method to judge whether to commit a major crime, then we can also follow suit and judge when to commit a major crime."

He picked up a brush and made a simple calculation on a blank piece of paper, and came up with the proportion of savings held by savers with more than 44.7 yuan in savings. The answer was %...

"Don't they know that depositing money and food in the bank will be known to the court?"

Zhu Zhanhe frowned and asked, and Jiang Huai replied: "Of course they know, so they don't save all the money and food in their hands."

"In the past five years, bank savings have nearly doubled. Maybe in their view, their savings are not too much, but other people and nobles also think so, so a balance is reached."

"People think they are smart, but as soon as they deposit their money in the bank, the amount of their money and grain is already known to the court."

"Based on the last house raid, bank savings accounted for only 20-30% of their assets, and the bulk was still in the fields."

"The fields that the imperial court inspected back then have not been completely sold out yet."

“By the time these fields are sold, the nest egg will be polarized again, and that’s when it’s time to take action.”

When Jiang Huai said this, Lu Yu frowned and said, "Although I say this, how do you judge whether these people are clean?"

"Your Majesty will not deal with those who are innocent and only earn money by working with their hands."

"It's very simple!" Jiang Huai said: "Using the growth rate of ordinary people's savings of more than 5.6 million as a comparison, if it far exceeds the growth rate of ordinary people's savings, then an investigation is needed."

"Depositors need to provide proof of household registration when opening an account. You can check it if you want."

"With the methods of Xichang and Jinyiwei, it is not difficult to find out whether these people are clean."

"Although this is a big project, I think Your Highness should be aware of the number and means of Jinyiwei and West Factory."

Jiang Huai threw the problem back into Zhu Zhanhe's hands, and this issue was also a top secret of the Ming Dynasty.

After the restructuring, the numbers of Xichang and Jinyiwei were basically no longer disclosed to the public.

Although the salary is issued by the Ministry of Household Affairs, it is actually the Ministry of Household Affairs that first transports the money and grain to the internal fund, which operates the bank to distribute the salary of Xichang and Jinyiwei.

It would be easy for the Accounts Department to check, but no one would think of checking this account because there are only four people who can check this account.

They are the Minister of Household Affairs, the Left and Right Minister, and the Minister of Finance.

Once the information about Jin Yiwei and Xichang is exposed, these four people will definitely be severely investigated.

As for the officials below to conduct inventory based on salary distribution, it is very difficult.

There were more than two million officials, sergeants, and teachers in the Ming Dynasty. It was a huge task to find out the actual number of Jinyiwei and Xichang among the two million people.

Before they could find out, the emperor had already noticed and took action.

Because of this, the officials basically don't know the number of Xichang and Jinyiwei, and only a few people know.

As it happened, Zhu Zhanhe was one of them, and the number of Jinyiwei at present was more than 48,000, and the number of Xichang was more than 15,000. He knows, but he can't say, but he can answer Jiang Huai's question.

"If Jin Yiwei wants to check these hundreds of thousands of depositors, although it is more difficult, it will only take some effort."

He answered like this, and the other three people present all understood the extent of the imperial court's supervision over the world.

"At the current growth rate, in about five years, the ratio should reach 60% again."

After Jiang Huai finished speaking, he continued: "From Hongwu to the present, the annexation of land in the world is not an exaggeration. Most of the land is still in the hands of ordinary people. This is impossible for other courts."

"Because of this, when dealing with the affairs of this dynasty, we must not judge based on past events. We can only take one step at a time."

Jiang Huai didn't make it too obvious, but everyone knew the biggest difference between this dynasty and previous dynasties.

Over the past sixty years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, nine major cases have arisen, one every seven years on average, and the scope of each case is getting larger and larger.

Especially the Guimao Xunchen case and the Yiweiyan Li case during the Hongxi period, almost every case was as intense as the original "Jingnan case".

Every major case involving hundreds of thousands of people is a major reshuffle of middle and high-level people. Because of this, classes will not be so solidified, and the court will have extra money and food to support the people, and the people will also rely on the court. Achieve class jump with the help.

The court will not deal with those who are doing business properly, but once they are dishonest and want to seek their own political spokesperson, the court will have to deal with them.

Collusion between officials and businessmen was the most taboo thing during the Yongle and Hongxi years.

"When you talk about internal treatment, what kind of treatment do you plan to use?"

Zhu Zhanhe pondered for a long time before asking, and Jiang Huai also bowed and said:

"I dare not make a conclusion now. The most important thing is to see when the next major case or the next major case breaks out."

"You mean the time interval?" Lu Yu looked sideways at Jiang Huai. He didn't expect Jiang Huai to notice this.

The two were playing riddles, but Wang Ji was the more mature one. Regardless of whether Zhu Zhanhe understood what they were saying, he took the initiative to explain.

"A major case involving the imperial court, based on examples from past dynasties, a major case can affect peace and prosperity for at least ten years, but the imperial court is involved very frequently."

"I think this seems to be related to the current developed transportation. This transportation makes the concentration of wealth much faster, so the time for a major case to be controlled is getting shorter and shorter."

"Unless all these rats are caught in one fell swoop, a major case will only last a few years."

The term "shuo rat" in Wang Ji's mouth is just a reference. In fact, what he wants to say is that as long as the current system remains unchanged, even if the court keeps launching major cases, it will not be able to solve the problem of wealth concentration.

On the contrary, if the court fails to solve the problem of wealth concentration in time, even just once, then the difficulty of solving this problem in the future will increase exponentially.

When the difficulty reaches a certain level, the matter is destined to be unresolved.

There is no need to say this clearly, Zhu Zhanhe knew it very well, so he opened his mouth and said:

"Can the Financial Department find out who holds the most wealth at the moment?"

"We can't investigate unless His Majesty orders it." Jiang Huai shook his head in response, and Zhu Zhanhe felt confident.

"I already understand the treatment you mentioned."

"Okay, let's talk about the Indian sidekick..."

Zhu Zhanhe changed the topic, and Jiang Huai and others began to advise him on how to govern these places and how to maximize the interests of the court.

Although their conversation was cryptic, it could not reveal everything. However, at night in the Wuying Palace, only Shangzhi soldiers and horses could move around and supervise, and the Shangzhi soldiers and horses who could guard the imperial city were all the emperor's cronies without exception.

Because of this, their words were also transmitted to the Qianqing Palace at the same time.

Sitting in the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Gaoxu had just washed and sat down, enjoying the maids kneading his legs, feet and shoulders.

Sitting all year round to manage government affairs, diseases such as frozen shoulder will naturally not let him go. Therefore, after a day of administrative work, it is normal to have sore shoulders, legs and feet, and he needs to relax.

After feeling a little comfortable in his shoulders, Zhu Gaoxu blocked the palace ladies and asked Hu Ji to report to him about Wuying Hall.

Hu Ji explained clearly what Zhu Zhanhe and the others did in the Wuying Palace without any personal information, because he knew that Zhu Zhanhe and the others also deliberately discussed these things in the Wuying Palace to let him know.

The intimacy between the king and his ministers means that the ministers want the king to know what they are doing and what they have done.

Once a subject wants to hide something from the king, even if it is his biological son, the king will not give up his suspicion.

Zhu Zhanhe, if nothing else, has a thorough study of the relationship between kings and ministers and fathers and sons, so he will not rush the ministers to the East Palace to discuss government affairs, for fear that his father will be suspicious of him.

"The people around him are pretty good, especially the one named Jiang Huai, who can even pay attention to the affairs of the Finance Department."

Zhu Gaoxu picked up the tea cup and sipped tea to moisten his throat while commenting.

Hu Ji nodded upon seeing this and continued to report: "In the past three months since Jianghuai came to the capital, he has basically been observing the documents that your Majesty has transferred."

"He will read the documents you read, no matter how big or small they are."

"Your Majesty, I must be frank, I'm afraid Jianghuai's move is inappropriate..."

"Yeah" Zhu Gaoxu responded, but he was not worried or concerned.

These things that Jianghuai has done have not been done by anyone in private.

But the problem is, even if they know that a major case is about to happen based on the data from the Ministry of Household Affairs, what changes can they make?

Can they control the officials below from annexing land, colluding with officials and businessmen, and amassing wealth?
People's hearts are greedy. If the people at the top could always take care of the people at the middle and lower levels, then there wouldn't be so many dynasty collapses throughout the ages.

Even if they know these things, they can only protect themselves.

As long as financial and military power were in the hands of the emperor, officials in the officialdom could be laid off and replaced at any time.

"How many people signed up for the imperial examination this year, and how many were successful?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked Hu Ji, and Hu Ji said without hesitation: "About 2.4 million people signed up, only about 4,600 were successful, and more than 300 were Jinshi."

"How many of these people can get official positions?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked again, and Hu Ji recalled a little before he said: "Less than a thousand people."

"Well..." Zhu Gaoxu agreed in a deep voice and did not continue to ask questions.

There are more than 2.4 million people who apply for the imperial examination. Every year, thousands of people take the exam, but only less than 1,000 or even a few hundred people get official positions.

Before Yan Li's case, nearly 20,000 people in the imperial court had no official positions and could only stay at home.

Since the imperial court canceled many of Juren's benefits, Juren was nothing more than an ordinary person with a title.

Although there will be some merchants to make friends with, everything is rare and expensive.

Based on the current situation of the Ming Dynasty, if a person is promoted step by step without a backing, it may take more than ten years or even decades to get an official position, and it is most likely that he will be the chief official among the six houses in a county, not the county. The third chief officer in the middle school.

The longer the delay went on, the more flustered these people became.

If there is anyone who wants the court to have a big case the most, it is them who have nothing to do at home.

After all, after a major case, there will be at least thousands more official positions waiting for them to take office.

The name of a person is just a name, and only the power obtained is the real power.

Before they became officials, they hoped to have big cases, but after they became officials, they were most resistant to big cases.

They want to get the benefits from both sides, but things are not that simple.

"How many people are at home now?"

Zhu Gaoxu asked slowly. Hu Ji bowed his head after hearing this and said, "I have to check the details, but it is probably around fifteen thousand."

"I understand, is there anything else I need to report?"

Zhu Gaoxu nodded and asked. Hu Ji wanted to retreat when he saw this, but he thought of something, so he bowed and said:

"I have checked the savings of various overseas propaganda envoys in the past few days. The highest one at the moment is Wang Ren, the former Dongzhou propaganda envoy, and the current governor of the Chinese Army Governor's Mansion, with savings of more than 58,000 yuan."

"But if you add up the houses, land and shops under his name, it's probably worth no less than a million."

"besides……"

Hu Ji wanted to report, but Zhu Gaoxu glanced at him: "I understand, please step back."

"Yes..." Seeing that the emperor didn't want to hear it, Hu Ji could only bow and exit the Qianqing Palace.

Watching him leave, Zhu Gaoxu also picked up the teacup and took a sip.

Although he had not investigated matters such as Wang Ren, he had already guessed that these people were extremely wealthy. After all, the colonial governors of Britain, France, Spain and other countries in their previous lives were all extremely wealthy. There was no reason why the Ming Dynasty could only have one consolation envoy. A clean and honest person.

A million guan is naturally a lot, but the court has not yet reached the time to take action against the Xuanwei envoy.

If Wang Ren was attacked, what would the overseas consolation envoys think? Moreover, their wealth was not that much in comparison.

As long as they make a mistake, you can punish them anytime you want.

Compared with them, Zhu Gaoxu wanted to take care of the gradually expanding number of hundreds of thousands of depositors, and he was even more greedy for the hundreds of millions of wealth in their hands.

It’s just that right now, it’s not the time to take action yet…

(End of this chapter)