Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 130 Lao Zhu’s worries and Yao Guangxiao’s request!

Lao Zhu is a very shrewd person.

But the intellectual education he received was incomplete.

For example, he is very good at arithmetic.

The country's tax revenue and expenditure are calculated clearly, down to the last cent.

But when it comes to monetary and financial knowledge, people start to fumble around.

The same is true for publishing newspapers and periodicals.

The first thing Zhu Yuanzhang thought about was the publishing cost of the imperial gazette.

However, they never thought that the situation of the official gazette was very special and could not be compared with large-scale commercial newspapers.

"How dare I deceive you?" Yao Guangxiao bowed and said, "The Ming Daily has detailed accounts. If you don't believe it, you can ask someone to check it out."

"The market price of paper is one cent per piece, but the Ming Daily publishes more than one million copies a day, so the purchase volume is huge."

"We bought it from the paper mill. The initial price was 3,000 wen for 10,000 sheets."

"Now it has been reduced to 2,000 wen and 10,000 pieces."

"After the establishment of the Daming Manufacturing Bureau, it is setting up its own paper mill. According to estimates, the cost can be further reduced to 1,000 wen and 10,000 sheets."

“Other things like ink are also extremely cheap.”

"With the help of His Royal Highness King Wu's cylinder mimeograph machine, the average cost of a newspaper is one and a half cents, which is already very high."

"If it weren't for His Royal Highness the King of Wu insisting on increasing the number of pages from four to eight, plus the extremely high salaries for the workers, the commissions for the newspaper salesmen, and the shipping costs required to sell newspapers all over the country, if we just kept lowering the cost, the cost of a newspaper could even be reduced to less than one cent."

Yao Guangxiao spoke eloquently and explained the accounts in detail to Old Zhu.

There is actually another very important reason why the cost of Ming Daily can be kept so low, and that is industrialization under large-scale production.

Through various measures, Zhu Yunhuan has basically achieved the industrialized production of newspapers and has been constantly improving it, so the cost is naturally very low.

Unexpectedly, Old Zhu became angrier the more he listened, with murderous intent filling his dragon eyes.

“It turns out that the cost of printing newspapers is so low.”

"But the court has to spend dozens of taels of silver to print hundreds of court reports, which is equivalent to 50 or 60 wen per report. Where did all this money go?"

"Did they embezzle all of it?"

"Deserves to be killed!"

"We will confiscate the homes of all the officials who printed the court bulletin, behead them, and skin them and stuff them into straw!"

Old Zhu was furious and murderous.

Yao Guangxiao quickly advised: "Your Majesty, the high cost of the official newspaper should have nothing to do with corruption."

"The contents of the court report are confidential matters of the imperial court. Each link needs to be managed by a dedicated person."

“Plus, the printing volume is extremely small and the cost is high, which is normal.”

Not bad.

Only a few hundred copies of the official gazette were printed.

However, as a confidential newspaper of the imperial court, it had to strictly extract memorials and the emperor's instructions and do various confidentiality work. There were dozens of staff members alone.

The salary expenses for staff are not a small amount.

Since the print quantity is so small, the cost of each newspaper is of course sky-high.

To put it bluntly, if only one copy of the official gazette is printed, its cost would be dozens of taels of silver per copy.

This has nothing to do with official corruption.

The costs of mass printing and small-scale customization cannot be simply compared.

What's more, the official gazette has additional and high confidentiality costs.

Yao Guangxiao tried every means to persuade Zhu Yuanzhang and calculated in detail the expenses required for the court report, which gradually calmed Zhu Yuanzhang's anger.

However, Lao Zhu's attention was drawn to another matter.

"How is Huer going to spend more than two million taels of silver every year?"

This amount of silver is equivalent to one-tenth of the imperial court’s annual tax revenue!

What’s more important is that how the court should spend the money it collected had actually been determined long ago.

Many expenses are fixed.

The money just passes through hands and then has to be spent.

The amount of silver that he could actually freely dispose of was only about two to three million taels.

If not for this, Zhu Yuanzhang would not have kept his eyes on the newly printed banknotes.

The sudden increase of more than two million taels of silver almost doubled the disposable income. It is no wonder that Zhu Yuanzhang would be concerned.

Logically speaking, this money was earned by Zhu Yunhuan personally and had nothing to do with the imperial court.

After all, it was Old Zhu who only approved the newspaper publishing project but did not give him any money.

Zhu Yunhuan paid for all of this out of his own pocket using his salary as a prince.

Now that it's profitable, of course it should belong to him.

However, Zhu Yuanzhang thought again, the world will belong to Zhu Yunhuan in the future. In other words, isn’t Zhu Yunhuan’s money the court’s money?
There's nothing wrong with asking him how to spend it!

"His Royal Highness Prince Wu said that a small portion of this money was used in the Investigation Department."

"The rest will be used to set up an intelligence bureau dedicated to gathering intelligence from countries around the world."

"Now, the intelligence of the Ming Dynasty on the Northern Yuan Dynasty is mainly handled by the princes stationed on the border."

“As a result, the court lost its eyes and ears.”

"Your Highness the King of Wu believes that all of them should be returned to the court in the future."

"In addition to the Northern Yuan Dynasty, there are other surrounding countries, such as Japan, Annan, and even overseas in Southeast Asia."

"Your Majesty the King of Wu hopes to spread his eyes and ears far and wide and observe all the affairs of the world."

Yao Guangxiao reported the facts truthfully.

When Zhu Yunhuan had free time, he discussed this matter with him.

In Zhu Yunhuan's view, the Age of Discovery was about to arrive, and the Ming Dynasty must seize the opportunity.

Intelligence work becomes extremely important.

The Eagle Country, which later dominated the Blue Star, spent more than 10% of its military expenditure on intelligence every year!

You know, the military expenditure of Eagle Country itself is an astronomical figure. The money spent on intelligence is never wasted.

The intelligence from Eagle Country is so accurate that it can almost be said that no other country on Blue Star can match it.

If the Ming Dynasty wants to dominate the Blue Planet, it must do this.

On the one hand, a large number of spies were placed in hostile countries to gather information.

On the other hand, even if the country was conquered and made to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty and become a colony of the Ming Dynasty, it would still be necessary to send intelligence personnel to closely monitor it to prevent any changes.

Zhu Yunhuan had great ambitions to welcome the arrival of the Age of Discovery and the Age of Industrialization.

But it cannot be separated from the support of the intelligence system.

Even the early stages of clearing the way required a small team of well-trained intelligence personnel.

More than two million taels of silver every year may seem like a lot now, but once the times change, it is actually just a small amount of money.

Old Zhu's brows were tightly furrowed.

Is it necessary to spend so much money to gather foreign intelligence?
Or is Hun'er preparing to conquer other countries?
If that's the case, that won't work.

Apart from the Northern Yuan Dynasty, which posed a serious threat to the northern Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang did not want to conquer any other country!
People in later generations often highly praise emperors who expanded territory.

Only those who are involved in it know what price they have to pay to expand territory!
Especially for ordinary people.

Due to the limitations of productivity levels, countries of this era have no way to obtain resources from areas that are too remote.

There is basically no grain production in those places, so it is not realistic to transport it over.

Even the grain from Sichuan, the land of abundance, was basically not transported to the Central Plains due to the blocking of the Shu Road, and the grain could only be produced and sold by the people themselves.

To the extent that for a long period of time, the price of grain in Sichuan was much lower than that in the Central Plains.

Most other mineral resources are also unavailable.

Expanding territory cannot bring any actual benefits, and its real meaning only has two aspects.

First, it serves as a barrier to the Central Plains region to prevent foreign invasion.

Second, it is recorded in history as the emperor’s achievement.

There is no doubt about the first point. As long as there is an external enemy, if we cannot coexist peacefully, we should fight!
Therefore, this was the attitude of the Ming Dynasty under Zhu Yuanzhang towards the Northern Yuan Dynasty.

After all, the Northern Yuan Dynasty is currently the biggest foreign enemy.

The second point is worth discussing.

Because this imperial achievement was built on the blood and tears of countless people.

One will be a million bones.

The emperor expanded the territory, but the cost was borne by the poor people.

Apart from making the emperor's name go down in history, there is no other benefit.

In Lao Zhu's opinion, this is something only a tyrant would do!

He would never do it.

His descendants cannot do it either.

What's more, war is a matter of great importance to a country, a matter of life and death, and the key to survival or destruction.

Old Zhu was well aware of the dangers of using military force.

If the army is sent on a long expedition and is defeated, it will be easy for the entire country to be dragged into it.

The dangers of war are not just empty talk.

When discussing military affairs with his generals and princes, Zhu once said: "When a country uses troops, it is like a doctor using medicine. The purpose is to cure the disease. You must not take medicine when you are not sick. That will only make you sick!"

"Those in power should always talk about military affairs and never forget about them, but they must never resort to war!"

To this end, Zhu Yuanzhang even listed 15 countries that would not be conquered and wrote them into the "Imperial Ming Ancestor Instructions", stipulating that future generations would not use military force against these countries without reason.

At this moment, hearing what Yao Guangxiao said, Old Zhu immediately became alert.

"Hu'er, are you preparing to use military force against foreign enemies?"

Yao Guangxiao was stunned for a moment. He did not expect that the Emperor would ask about this matter.

"I don't know. His Majesty the King of Wu only told me about the establishment of an intelligence agency, and never mentioned the intention to conquer other countries."

Old Zhu felt relieved.

Just don't mention it.

However, I still have to summon Huer to ask him about it later.

After all, Hu'er is young and energetic, so it's inevitable that he has the idea of making great achievements and expanding the territory.

We must teach him to put people's livelihood first and not to resort to violence without authorization.

"How is your intelligence department doing? Have you found out who ordered the assassination of Hu'er that day?"

Lao Zhu asked about this matter.

"Your Majesty, the Investigation Department was established not long ago. Thanks to the great blessing of Your Majesty and His Royal Highness the King of Wu, everything is going smoothly."

"The assassination attempt on His Royal Highness the King of Wu that day was a serious matter, and the Intelligence Department should not have deliberately investigated it."

"I just got the news accidentally. I heard that the eunuch Nie Huan'er in the palace appeared in the place where the remnants of the Park family were hiding."

"Nothing more than that."

There was a gleam of light in Old Zhu Long's eyes, and then he seemed to fall into deep thought.

He had already known about this matter. When Yao Guangxiao mentioned it, he couldn't help but feel a little emotional and remained silent for a long time.

The hall was extremely quiet.

Suddenly, Lao Zhu's voice sounded calmly: "What do you think about this?"

"This matter involves the royal family, so I cannot speak carelessly." Yao Guangxiao said cautiously.

"In two days, it will be the birthday of Hun'er's mother, Concubine Lu. I heard that Hun'er has already invited Hun'er to the banquet. How do you think Hun'er should respond?"

But Old Zhu did not let him go and asked about Concubine Lu's birthday party.

Old Zhu had sent someone to remind Zhu Yunhuan before, but not in his own name.

Since Yao Guangxiao was a counselor valued by the King of Wu, Zhu Yunhuan should have discussed this matter with him and made preparations.

Upon hearing this, Yao Guangxiao suddenly bowed down and said, "I would like to ask your Majesty to issue an order to stop His Royal Highness the King of Wu from going!"

……

(End of this chapter)