The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 569: Northern King City's Confusion
Beiwang City turned out to be an empty city!
This empty city does not mean that there is no one inside, but that there are no buildings inside.

At this time, the Beiwang City had built a circle of city walls more than two meters high. There were no buildings inside the city walls, only tents and chariots everywhere.

As the sun sets, smoke rises from the neatly arranged tents.

As night fell, bonfires were everywhere in the entire Beiwang City, like a sky full of stars.

Wanli, Xiao Zhu Changxun and his party also came to the open space surrounded by the familiar big tent, and roasted beef, mutton and fish by the campfire.

Northern King Zhu Changxu has grown a lot in the past year.

In the past, he would sit next to Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan, eagerly waiting for his mother to stuff the grilled fish and meat into his hands.

At this moment, he was holding a leg of lamb skillfully, cutting it into pieces, brushing it with seasoning, and flipping it on the iron rack with quick and swift movements.

Instead, little Zhu Changxun lay beside Imperial Noble Concubine Qin Lan with eager eyes, waiting to be fed.

This time they not only prepared grilled fish and barbecue.

Xu Guangqi and Wang Xiangjin also personally led people to set up two large pots on both sides of the campfire. The contents of the pots were stewed with cabbage and vermicelli and sauerkraut and pork belly.

Wanli couldn't help but taste a bowl of cabbage stewed with vermicelli without any meat.

It’s no wonder that these two things are a perfect match when stewed together. The flavors of cabbage and vermicelli are blended together to create a unique flavor. It’s even more enjoyable to eat it in big mouthfuls than eating meat.

After slurping down a large bowl, he nodded in satisfaction and said, "Mm, not bad, that's the taste. Zijin, the cabbage yield here is quite high, right?"

Upon hearing this, Wang Xiangjin nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, Your Majesty, this place seems to be particularly suitable for growing cabbage.

I use the same fertilizer as I do at home. Some of the cabbages grown in the soil here weigh more than ten pounds each. This proves that the soil here contains fertilizer that is particularly suitable for growing cabbages.

I originally wanted to try growing two crops of cabbage here, but in the end, every household would produce several thousand kilograms of cabbage in one crop, which was far too much to eat.

It would be great if I could feed the pigs now. There's so much cabbage in the field that I can't even eat it all, and I can't even fill the kimchi jars. The old leaves are starting to shrivel in circles, what a pity."

Feed the pigs?

Upon hearing this, Northern Prince Zhu Changxu became excited and asked, "Father, when can we get a large amount of fish meal?
The grain harvest here is almost here, and the Liaodong Regional Command has prepared a lot of piglets. I am planning to try out a few more feeds."

I had completely forgotten about this!

Upon hearing this, Wanli pondered, "At this moment, the Dongyangdusi produces at least several million kilograms of smoked fish every day, so there are plenty of fish bones.

My father will send an order tomorrow morning, asking the Dongyangdusi to shave off the fish heads and bones when smoking fish, then dry them, grind them into fish meal and send them over.

However, this requires a lot of manpower and material resources. After you raise the pigs, you will have to pay to buy fish meal from them.

You know, your eldest brother's family is short of supplies and has little land, so they rely on the fish they catch in the sea to make money. You can't let your eldest brother work for you in vain."

Big brother, are there a shortage of supplies and little land?
I have no money!

Upon hearing this, Northern Prince Zhu Changxu said with some difficulty: "Father, I have no money, not even a penny."

Uh, I actually forgot to give this guy money!

The reason why he forgot to give money to his second son was because his eldest son Zhu Changluo already had gold and silver mines. The gold and silver produced that year was more than the annual taxes of the Ming Dynasty. The kid already had money to turn around.

However, the Toyo Metropolitan Government has also spent a lot of money in recent years. It is unknown how much money has been spent on building bridges, roads, and cities alone.

This seems to be another confusing account!

He hasn't considered how these newly opened territories can be turned into profits.

In other words, he was only thinking about how to make money from these newly developed territories, but he didn't consider the issue of income and expenditure.

For example, the Nurgan Regional Command reclaimed wasteland for farming and raised pigs.

Another example is Toyodoshi’s charcoal smoked fish.

For example, North American Xidusi is fully committed to gold mining.

He has invested a lot of manpower, material and financial resources in these places. Some of them have already produced profits, while others are still under investment.

He has never calculated how much he has invested and how much profit he has generated. The income and expenditure seem to be a confusing account!

This definitely won't work. He expanded his territory for profit.

After all, he already has an army of three to four million under his command, and as his territory expands, he will certainly have to continue recruiting troops.

To support so many troops, you need money, and expanding the territory requires even more money.

He can't go on like this!
This newly opened territory must generate profits as quickly as possible, and the accounts must be settled.

In fact, there are many benefits in the newly opened territories, such as land, minerals, timber, and even wild delicacies and fish.

He hadn't even considered all this!
He thought about it carefully, then asked, "Yuan De, did the garrison troops need to pay land taxes in the past?"

How do you say this?

Zhang Yuande thought about it for a moment, then explained in detail: "Your Majesty, this depends on what kind of military farm it is.

If it was previously allocated to the garrison troops, it was used to support their families and they did not have to pay land tax. If it was newly opened, it was generally used to raise military rations. The land tax or the proportion of military rations collected from such garrison troops was very high, at least one dan per mu of land.

That's why there are no standards.

Without standards, it won’t work. Without standards, some people will try their best to find loopholes.

The Single Whip Method is an obvious example.

If this law does not have clear standards, some people will exploit loopholes and follow standards that suit their own interests. Many corrupt officials make money by exploiting such loopholes.

Therefore, whether it is collecting land tax or collecting military rations, there must be clear standards, otherwise it will easily breed corruption.

The greatest benefit of this newly opened territory actually lies in the fields, because these things produce output every year, and it is endless and will never run out. As long as the fields are still there and the people are still there, there will be income.

The reason why he did not want to collect land tax before was mainly because he did not want civil officials to interfere in military affairs. At the same time, he also hoped that the garrison troops could have enough food and clothing as soon as possible.

This is definitely not the way to go. The greatest benefits of expanding territory cannot be given away for free, otherwise the expansion of territory will lose its greatest significance.

Wanli thought about it carefully, and then said decisively: "Let's do this. From now on, all military farms will be treated the same as civilian farms, with a tax rate of one in twenty.

However, we must ensure that the military households in the garrison have enough land, and each household in the garrison must have at least 50 mu.

If there are many people in the garrison households, we must also provide them with garrison farmland based on the number of people. We must ensure that each person in the garrison household has at least ten acres of land.

That is to say, if a garrison soldier household has ten people, they must be given at least one hundred acres of land; if there are twenty people in the household, they must be given at least two hundred acres of land.

As for how to obtain supplies for the military farms, we can designate special military farm areas in the newly developed territories, move the military guards with large populations there to open up wasteland and cultivate the land, and reorganize them.

This will be handled by the Five Military Commandery. Uncle, tomorrow morning you will send a letter to the Five Military Commandery, asking them to quickly send a letter to each of the military garrisons."

Now the Five Military Commanderies Headquarters has something to do.

Hearing this, Li Xuancheng nodded repeatedly and said, "Okay, I'll remember it."

Wanli pondered for a moment and said, "Also, tomorrow I will send a decree to the Ministry of Works, asking them to organize craftsmen to survey all newly opened territories to see if there are any mineral deposits."

Now the Ministry of Industry is also busy.

Hearing this, Li Xuancheng nodded repeatedly and said, "Okay, I'll remember it."

Wanli pondered again and said, “Also, tomorrow you will issue an order to all the Dusi and Xingdusi.

All the products of the newly opened territories, including wild delicacies, fish, timber, etc., regardless of personal use, must be paid to the court for the money they sell."

Well, now I have something to do.

Hearing this, Li Xuancheng nodded repeatedly and said, "Okay, I'll remember it."

Wanli thought about it carefully, then said to Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan, "Xiaolan, go back and tell Xier that from now on, all the income from the fiefdoms must be turned over to the inner treasury.

You should carefully calculate the profits from all the fiefs of the vassal kings, and then take out 10% and return it to the vassal kings as salaries."

what?
All the fiefs of the vassal kings!
Upon hearing this, Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan asked cautiously, "Your Majesty, do all the previous vassal kings have to be counted together? Will they hand over their profits?"

Should I give money to these guys?

I will deal with them sooner or later!
Wanli shook his head without hesitation and said: "The previous vassal kings do not count, we only care about our own descendants.

Those vassal kings have embezzled countless acres of land and refused to pay any tax. Sooner or later, I will let them know the consequences of opposing me."

Uh, you don't have to tell me this.

Imperial Noble Consort Qin Lan nodded repeatedly and said, "Okay, I'll remember that."

Is there still money to be shared?
Upon hearing this, Northern Prince Zhu Changxu said cautiously, "Father, when will this money be distributed? I have no money, not even enough to build a palace."

Boy, don't keep thinking about money.

Wanli shook his head slightly, then patiently taught: "Xu'er, money is sometimes a good thing for us, but sometimes it is not necessarily a good thing.

If you use money to indulge in extravagance, then money is not a good thing for you. If you use money to benefit the people under your rule, then money is a good thing for you.

You must remember this. When you have money in the future, don't spend it indiscriminately, and don't be extravagant. Being a vassal king and being an emperor are actually the same thing. Both should put the people first.

As for the money for building your palace, your father will have the inner treasury allocate it, so you don't need to worry about it.

It’s actually a good thing that you don’t have money now. Only when you have no money do you realize how hard money is to come by.

Let’s put it this way. Father will first ask the inner treasury to allocate one million taels to you to develop pig feed.

Spend it slowly. Your father won't give you any more money in the future. If you want more money, think carefully about how to make your fiefdom produce more, so that you can collect more taxes."

Oh.

Northern Prince Zhu Changxu rubbed his head, seeming to understand, and said, "Okay, I understand."

(End of this chapter)