Datang Nongsheng

Chapter 595 Talking Deeply with Changsun Wuji

In the study of the Sun family, eldest grandson Wuji and Sun Xiangfu sat opposite each other. After Uncle De served them tea himself, he retreated outside the door.

"Zhengming's house is unique."

"There are a lot of people to support in the family, and I don't know how many years I will live here in the future. Naturally, more rooms need to be built."

The two of them just casually exchanged polite words, and immediately got down to business. After taking a sip of tea, Changsun Wuji put down the teacup, and the half-drunk look at the banquet disappeared, and said solemnly, "I know that, today's banquet What is the total number of these people looking for loans from banks?"

Sun Xiangfu nodded without any surprise and replied, "I estimate that there are quite a lot. The Chen family in Yingchuan alone has a demand of 300 to [-] million guan. The other families combined may not be less than [-] million guan."

Changsun Wuji nodded and said, "Yes! The sum of the amount they need exceeds [-] million yuan. You know, in Chang'an, they are going through the channels of courtiers and even harem concubines to find money from banks. How much is the loan?"

"It can't be more than the existing deposits in the bank!"

Changsun Wuji smiled helplessly, "Hehe, more than double."

"More than double? I remember that when I went to Shanyang, the imperial court counted the total deposits of banks in various places as more than 3 million coins! What are they going to do? Borrow [-] million coins from banks? How is this possible?" Hearing the eldest grandson When Wuji reported this data, Sun Xiangfu said in a daze.

According to the data released by the imperial court, it is impossible for those aristocratic families who have people in the imperial court to know that it is impossible for the imperial court to borrow money from the bank. This is not nonsense.

"As far as I know, the aristocratic families in various places are now divided into several hills. What we saw today is only one hill headed by the Wang family. These hills want to expand and become bigger, so they are fighting. Shantou has found his own connection to borrow money from the bank, and the amount has reached more than 1 million yuan. They are strangling the maximum amount that the bank can release so far, and will not give other Shantou a chance."

When Changsun Wuji said this, Sun Xiangfu immediately understood, expansion and growth, capital, is the bargaining chip, whoever gets the bargaining chip first will benefit first, and now they are grabbing the bargaining chip from the bank.

Moreover, Sun Xiangfu also expected that the imperial court did not want any mountain to grow bigger, and would definitely want a balance. Therefore, the consensus reached by Li Shimin and his confidant ministers should be to distribute the loan amount that the bank can borrow equally among each mountain. With his current status as a commoner, Sun Xiangfu said, "I believe His Majesty has already made a decision on how to borrow money from others!"

Changsun Wuji nodded and replied, "So far, the bank has not approved any large amount of borrowing, but there are many projects that must be completed. His Majesty is ready to ask the Ministry of Finance to approve the appropriation. There are several guarantees in Jiangling City. That's the case with the project, by the way, this is the financial report of the imperial court this year, the data of the last two months, because the statistics take time, it will be included in the next year, you can take a look first."

After the eldest Sun Chong handed a folded paper in his arms to Sun Xiangfu, he drank tea again. He knew that Sun Xiangfu's current identity did not know these latest data that only the top management knew, and if he did not know these Data, it is difficult for him to judge the general situation.

Since Datang's official writing has become simple, accurate, and easy-to-understand vernacular, all kinds of things seem to be much easier. In less than a quarter of an hour, Sun Xiangfu read the booklet.

To put it simply, this financial report is a summary of the total fiscal and taxation of the imperial court and the balance of the previous year as of the end of October this year. This is the first complete fiscal year after the Four Sides land was included in the Tang Dynasty. Due to the expansion of the territory and population It has doubled, harvests have been bumper across the country, and business has continued to prosper. With the economic stimulus of the Dingxiang Sports Conference, the tax balance of the imperial court this year has reached more than 200 million yuan, which is an increase from the previous fiscal year. Nearly twice as much, plus some balances in the previous treasury, the tax funds available to the imperial court are now as high as more than 600 million guan.

Of course, at the end of the booklet, there is also a general arrangement for how to spend the money. The largest expenditure is military expenses. The total strength of the various departments of the navy has reached almost 100 million. Among them, the military expenditure on naval equipment manufacturing alone has reached 200 million per year.

And now all the soldiers in Datang have turned into professional soldiers, that is to say, they will treat being a soldier as a full-time job in the future, so they have to get military pay every month. Military salaries for high-level officers and soldiers cost about 300 million guan every month. After a year, plus the upgrading and consumption of ordnance and equipment, the overall cost will reach about 4000 million guan.

Of course, not all of this money will come from the imperial account, because the army itself is productive, like the Anxi army, which will reclaim millions of acres of military farmland next year, and will increase by millions of acres every year in the future. The above, like the Anbei Army, can completely afford food and military pay, because they not only have well-developed military fields, but also have a huge support of animal husbandry.The Annan Army of the Yunnan Town Guard Mansion has medicines and business benefits.

Generally speaking, the actual expenditure of these expenses by the court may only be half, about 2000 million guan, and as the scope of the military settlement increases and the output increases, less and less expenditure will be required.

These military expenditures are new expenditures that will emerge next year, so they are calculated separately. As for the salaries of the courtiers and the expenditures of various government offices, they have actually been deducted. More than 3000 million yuan is the balance after paying all the original expenditures.

Of course, even if the military expenditure is a bit large, Li Shimin and a group of bigwigs in the court have nothing to say, because the original government soldiers were jointly supported by the people in their villages. After the professional soldiers, the imperial court will support them and give them military salaries. Then, the apportionment that was originally added to the common people to support the government soldiers is tantamount to subtracting.

When the tax revenue of the imperial court increased so much that it was enough to pay for the state, Li Shimin not only reduced the apportionment of the people to support the government soldiers, but also exempted the poll tax and all other exorbitant and miscellaneous taxes for the people of the whole country. Looking at it, those taxes do not account for much of the total tax revenue, and it is more troublesome to collect.

From now on, in Datang, there will only be commercial tax, agricultural tax, and personal income tax paid by workers. Except for commercial tax, which is a little more complicated due to the difference in commodity value, agricultural tax and personal income tax are all [-] taxes, which is simple. To be clear at a glance.

After that, it is the expenditure of several major basic projects. Li Shimin plans to dredge the Yellow River from Chang'an to Luoyang to make it easier for boats.

A lot of work needs to be done to slow down and smooth the flow of the turbulent Yellow River. Even though the current construction tools of Tang Dynasty are many times more advanced than those of the former Sui Dynasty, it is still difficult to complete this work. Although it needs to be repaired The place is only more than a hundred miles in the western part of Henan, but the cost required is no less than the construction of a cement road of two to three thousand miles. The initial budget is 500 million guan, and the follow-up may cost 800 million guan, because , according to the plan designed by the water conservancy experts of the Metropolitan Water Supervision, it is almost necessary to abandon the entire original riverbed and re-dug an artificial riverbed of more than 100 miles for the Yellow River.

After that, there is the infrastructure construction of Jiangling City and the construction of several roads. Someone proposed to build a cement road from Chang'an to Xunyang County. In this way, from Chang'an to Jiangling, it only needs to walk more than 300 miles to Xunyang County. At the Hanshui Wharf in Yangxian County, you can board a boat and walk by water, and go straight down the Han River to the Taibo Lake Wharf in the north of Jiangling City.

If this route is compared with normal people taking the whole journey by land, it can only save two or three days, and the whole journey can be reached in about five or six days. However, if it is a merchant who takes goods from Guanzhong to Jiangling, the gap is huge Yes, the cargo ship has a large cargo capacity and goes straight down the river, which can save a lot of manpower and freight.

After calculating these items, it can be seen that Li Shimin has no intention of keeping the balance of the treasury's finances and taxes. That is to say, if there are other items, the imperial court can only use bank loans to operate them.

"Judging from this financial report, all the cash at the disposal of the imperial court has been spent, and any additional expenses need to be borrowed from the bank. Therefore, the amount of loans from the bank to the private sector is not too much, right? After reading it, Sun Xiangfu returned the booklet to Zhangsun Wuji.

"Yes, but His Majesty also very much wants these families or merchants to start promoting the construction of Datang as soon as possible. He also said that you must have a way."

"Hehe, Your Majesty really thinks highly of me, but whether it's external expansion or internal development, I don't recommend taking too big a step. Take Jiangling City as an example. It has become a distribution center for goods from the north and south of the Tang Dynasty, can it really support an urban system that is more than twice the size of Dingxiang?"

Changsun Wuji nodded and said, "Not necessarily, but, isn't it you? You will definitely find a way to make Jiangling City continue to prosper."

Sun Xiangfu glanced at Zhangsun Wuji awkwardly and said, "You look down on me more than Your Majesty, I don't have that ability, a city with a combined population of only 10,000+, you suddenly expand it to a bigger city than your Majesty." Luoyang is still more than ten square kilometers large. It is really necessary to build hundreds of large hotels that can accommodate tens of thousands of people, and various places that can entertain tens of thousands of people. Once the sports meeting is over, these Is there anyone living in this place? Is there anyone playing? At that time, this place will be a very well-built empty city, but it will constantly need capital investment to maintain it.”

The goods distribution center, to put it bluntly, means that all the people are just passing through this city. It is even possible that due to practical reasons, many merchants will directly use Jiangxia City, which can pass through the two major water systems of the Han River and the Yangtze River, as a goods distribution center. , because once the goods from Guanzhong can go to Xunyang County to quickly enter the Han River, then the Han River line will also become more important. , to Chang'an, but turn directly into the Han River at Jiangxia, take the Han River to the Xunyang Wharf to disembark, and walk more than 300 miles to Chang'an by land. In this way, during the wet season, it is actually much easier than going around the canal.

Changsun Wuji was not blocked by Sun Xiangfu's words, but said very firmly, "Before coming to Jiangling, I was still worried about this matter, but after arriving here, I am not worried at all, otherwise, you At the beginning, Jiangling City would not have been designed so big, so you must have a comprehensive plan early in the morning.

How could Jiangling City, surrounded by dozens of wealthy places like Jiuyuan County, be an empty city?
So, it is clear that you must have a way.

Let's be honest!You know, your current situation should be temporary. One day, you will be reinstated as an official. You don't want it to be a mess when you take over and go back! "

Changsun Wuji is a genius, and it is impossible for Sun Xiangfu to hide his clumsiness in front of him, so he shook his head with a bitter face and said, "Okay! Now that you have seen it, let me say a few words! If you do Come on, I don't mind giving you a trick."

Changsun Wuji looked at Sun Xiangfu with such an expression as expected, and said, "Just say it."

Sun Xiangfu expected early in the morning that Changsun Wuji would come to him for advice, so he said what he had thought in his mind, "First of all, it is a policy to build embankments and open fields to absorb and resettle people who have settled here for various reasons. , the future cannot be changed.”

"Don't worry about this. There is a case in Jiuyuan County. No one in the court dares to stop the development and construction of the plow field. Unless all the places suitable for the plow field have been built." Changsun Wuji nodded without thinking road.

"Secondly, the Yuantian area built later should not only imitate the shape of Jiuyuan County, but not its god. That is to say, not only the series of preparations such as fields, houses and livestock must be in line with Jiuyuan County at the beginning, The entire political system and the protection of people's livelihood must also be learned."

"You can rest assured about this point. The old man thinks that just by imitating the existing system in Jiuyuan County, at least a dozen places with a population as large as Jiuyuan County can be made rich as long as they are rich. Once you wake up, you will naturally have the corresponding protection." Changsun Wuji agreed again.

Seeing Changsun Wuji's willingness to agree, Sun Xiangfu said again, "Then, take out the planning drawings of Jiangling City that I submitted to the court at the beginning, and if you can strictly follow the above plans, then I will The strategies mentioned are likely to work."

"The plan for that blueprint?"

Speaking of this, Changsun Wuji frowned.It seems that according to the plan on the blueprint, there are many places in the city that are not used to build houses. That is to say, the imperial court can't sell those lands wantonly to those who plan to invest in Jiangling. A big loss!

(End of this chapter)