Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 288 The Conspiracy to Open the Sea

Shi Kefa's carriage drove out of the barracks, and politely declined Yang Chao's invitation to review the military appearance.

A small official in the carriage asked: "Why doesn't Mr. Shi want to see General Yang's army?"

This small official was a small official in charge of money and food, and was brought by Shi Kefa to listen to the land reclamation strategy. As a result, he saw the results directly, but it was not in line with Shi Kefa's expectations. curious.

Shi Kefa shook his head: "It doesn't matter if you don't look at it, I have seen Yang Chaojun in Huai'an, and it is well-known. There is no need to look at it now. I think the military discipline under Yang Chao's rule will not be ruined. And I also have hardships, and I am ashamed to see it." Those generals."

The little official asked, "What is your lord's secret?"

Shi Kefa sighed: "When I was in Huai'an, I didn't give rewards to these soldiers. If I review them this time as Minister of the Ministry of War, if I haven't rewarded them, it will be unreasonable. So it's better not to see them."

The little official also sighed secretly, knowing that Shi Kefa, the Minister of the Ministry of War, was indeed too poor, but Shi Kefa was stubborn, and there were a lot of opportunities to make money. Just follow the procedures strictly. Don’t you know that those procedures are more or less controlled by other people. He Shi Kefa does not sell his officials, but others are not polite. All the lists that Shi Kefa sees have been paid, but the money is not there. Shi Kefa has a copy.

……

"Military fields, that's right, they are all military fields. You can plant them, and you will be allowed to plant them for one day if I have one day. There is no title deed, and Shi Benbing does not agree to grant the title deed. What can I do?"

Not long after Shi Kefa left, Yang Chao called over the chief executives of Zuoqian Headquarters and told them that the title deeds they wanted were gone, those who were willing to reclaim land, and those who were unwilling would be pulled down.

It has to be said that Shi Kefa's inspection this time brought Yang Chao a lot of trouble.

Originally, [-] mu of wasteland could be exchanged for these people's official positions and the number of soldiers in their hands. Unexpectedly, after seeing it, Shi Kefa refused to agree to issue the title deed. He told Yang Chao that these are military fields, and they are still military fields after reclaiming the wasteland. , Yang Chao is allowed to farm here to raise soldiers, but Yang Chao is not allowed to divide the land.

Shi Kefa also hoped that Yang Chao would not blame him. He just hoped to solve the problem of military pay. The Ministry of War really couldn't afford the military pay. It was a good way to farm the land to raise soldiers, but it could only be used to raise soldiers.

Yang Chao knew that Shi Kefa was also forced to do nothing by money. His predecessor Xiong Mingyu could practice Tai Chi, but Shi Kefa was a serious person, and such things as the army's salary would be weighed down in his heart.

"Since that's the case, then the subordinate will leave. Don't blame General Yang. It's not that the subordinate doesn't know what's good. It's really a family's livelihood, so the subordinate dare not be careless."

The military officers said goodbye and left one by one. They couldn't afford to offend Yang Chao, but there was no guarantee. They really didn't want to give up the only thing in their hands. They can only grow land in the military camp, raise pigs and so on. They don't have to worry about food and clothing, but they dare not ask for extravagant wealth.

Also because they had no money, each of them raised dozens or even dozens of people. Of course, it was impossible to use up the soldiers in their hands, but each of them had a full number of soldiers in their books. There are empty quotas, but they can't eat those empty quotas.

But Yang Chao didn't eat their spare pay, because the Ministry of War hadn't seen the military pay this year. Last year, the captives invaded the East and went to the south of the Yangtze River. Many people have gained weight, but the court is poor, and it is always in short supply every year, and this year it will be even worse. Maybe by the end of the year, last year's military salary may not be paid.

So even Yang Chao didn't have the chance to eat empty pay, let alone these officers who still had to receive their pay from Yang Chao.

With the imperial court in such a predicament, it's no wonder Shi Kefa tried his best to solve the problem of military pay for the barracks.

If you want to blame, you can blame Yang Chao and Shi Kefa for their different purposes. Yang Chao only wanted to get those troops and official positions, but he never thought about such things as farming and raising soldiers, because Yang Chao had plenty of ways to make money. The imperial court can also do it, for example, open shipping, not much to say in a year, 300 million taels of silver is not difficult, even the Zheng Chenggong family, it is said that they can make tens of millions of taels of profit every year just by doing Japanese trade, the entire Ming Dynasty opened It is not easy to collect customs duties at sea, and a mere 300 million taels.

But whoever dares to lift the sea ban in the court, those upright people will definitely scold him to death, and the emperor is a face-saving person, and he doesn't know how huge the customs tax is. Little is better than nothing, most of them have been corrupted by officials of the tax department.

So the emperor had no money, and he only knew how to ask the common people for money desperately, and there was a lot of trouble with the additional levy of three rates. To bear the infamy of searching for the common people.

If Chongzhen knew that all the big and small bosses in the Zheng Group were worth more than one million yuan and made millions of taels of silver every year, I am afraid that no matter how many pedantic officials scolded him, Chongzhen would not be able to bear the ban.

In addition to the sea ban, there are many ways for the imperial court to make money, such as increasing business taxes. As the country with the most prosperous business in this era, the business taxes received by the Ming Dynasty are far inferior to those of small countries in Western Europe. Low, this is obviously too unreasonable. If the commercial tax is added, compared with the ratio of later generations, it must be much more than the tariff. 500 taels is just a trivial matter.

However, when a country needs to spend money, temporarily increasing taxes is the most inferior method. The real cleverness is actually borrowing money. The emperor borrowed money, and it would be too embarrassing for the emperor to borrow money. Sometimes those old pedants would say, "I am rich in the world, how can I borrow money from the common people?" ', is enough to make Chongzhen, the face-loving emperor, give up.

But in the final analysis, there is still confidence. Relying on tax increases, the Ming Dynasty maintains millions of troops all the year round. It has fought against the captives for decades, and it can always maintain an advantage in the battle with the bandits. It has supported several soldiers on the two fronts. Ten years, this is unimaginable in small western countries. These small countries can only borrow money when encountering major events. In the past, they borrowed money from Italian interbanks and Jewish bankers, and now they borrow money from Dutch exchanges.

The Ming Dynasty was such an evil sect. Even though it possessed the most silver on earth, the emperor's treasury could not pay any money, and all the money was stored in the cellars of local tyrants.According to the statistics of later generations, during the Ming Dynasty for more than 200 years, the amount of silver that flowed into China was about [-] million taels, of which [-] million were hoarded by wealthy businessmen, landlords or officials, and less than a quarter of the market circulated. In the late Ming Dynasty, the value of silver was always high.

Daming is not short of money, but it cannot be collected. To put it bluntly, the various systems are too inefficient, and it is impossible to integrate the power of the entire country, let alone tap the potential.

Yang Chao sometimes feels very puzzled by this situation, but he can't find a solution. Many things are obviously so simple, but they can't be done in Daming. How normal is the ban on opening the sea, how can there be a coastline of tens of thousands of miles The country does not engage in overseas trade, but the civil officials in the court are against it. Emperor Longqing and Wanli opened the sea ban for money, but these two emperors were scolded to death by the civil officials. The sea is banned.

The same is true of commercial taxes. It is hard to imagine that the Ming Dynasty would rather make the world boil and reach out to the people at the lowest level, but not tax the wealthy businessmen who are rich. He can even directly kill a group of wealthy businessmen to steal money.

People in later generations don't understand it. There are various experts' researches. Some people think that the reason for not collecting business tax is that most of the big businessmen in the south of the Yangtze River have inextricable connections with court officials. It is these people who manipulate officials to prevent the emperor from collecting taxes. If the sea ban is not opened, it is because many big officials in the south of the Yangtze River are doing smuggling at home.

But what Yang Chao saw was really not like this. If the officials of the Ming Dynasty had such executive power, it wouldn't be too bad.

Yang Chao felt that the emperor didn't collect business tax, probably because he didn't like it, maybe because he didn't like it, because he looked down on the businessman, so he didn't want to reach out to the businessman, or maybe the emperor didn't know that the business tax could receive so much, those who The pedantic civil servants probably couldn't imagine how much business taxes could collect.

As for the sea ban, it is even more nonsense. Officials oppose the open sea trade, which is definitely influenced by conservative ideas. They always think that the sea is full of dangers, and open sea trade is easy to attract pirates. The Japanese pirates have been in the south for decades. They had lingering fears, so they overcorrected.

As for those who deliberately obstruct the opening of the sea because of the interests of smuggling, they have completely ignored the economic laws. For these smuggling maritime merchants, after the ban on opening the sea, they are the group of people who will benefit the most. They wish to open the sea as soon as possible. .

The impact of the sea embargo is only to increase the cost of smuggling and affect the competitiveness of the Ming Dynasty's products. It is only because the Ming Dynasty has the strongest domestic demand that it has developed the largest handicraft industry in the world, plus silk and porcelain. Waiting for unique handicraft products, so that the handicraft industry of the Ming Dynasty will not lag behind the whole world in the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty banned the sea for more than 200 years, and the Ming Dynasty was still the number one country in the world. The Qing Dynasty banned the sea for more than 200 years, and the result was completely backward. If the Ming Dynasty opened up, China would not lose the era of great navigation. Opportunities, even because of the strongest capital and confidence, will receive the greatest benefits in this open era.

If the sea ban is opened, the level can earn several million business taxes, and the industry and commerce of the Ming Dynasty will open a window to the world market, promote the industry and commerce of the Ming Dynasty, and increase the business tax. The sea ban, the emperor probably will not be short of money for many years.

If the emperor is not short of money, he will not raise taxes, and even has the ability to provide disaster relief, and then the internal peasant uprising will subside slowly. With strong national power, the Manchu forces outside the pass will be exhausted, and the fate of the Ming Dynasty will also change.

Thinking of this, Yang Chao couldn't help getting excited, but how could the emperor agree to open the sea ban?
It’s definitely not counting if you say it yourself, at least you have to find someone with weight to say this to the emperor, then Shi Kefa is quite suitable!

(End of this chapter)