Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 505 Work Center
New book for collection: "The Rise of Great Powers 1900"

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The sixth year of Longwu ushered in the sound of firecrackers, and Yang Chao looked happy holding his daughter.

This year my daughter is three years old, she can already walk, and she can already speak simple words on twitter.

The family is happy.

"Daddy, you are so fat!"

Putting her daughter on her lap, the daughter scratched Yang Chao's body indiscriminately, grabbing the fat on Yang Chao's stomach and muttering.

Yang Chao laughed: "Smelly girl, do you think your father is fat? Let me tell you, your father was able to ride a horse back then..."

Yang Chao suddenly stopped talking, and felt sad for no reason. Yes, he was also a general who could fight on horseback and lead troops to kill, but now, he suddenly felt that in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, when Liu Bei discovered that he was full of flesh, why would he Weeping.

Seeing that Yang Chao, who was suddenly provoked by her daughter's words, became silent, Aimee Zhu immediately hugged her daughter and scolded her, and her daughter soon burst into tears.

"Don't blame Hong'er! Don't scold her."

Yang Chao quickly hugged his daughter and coaxed her up again.

The love of children is indeed easy to destroy the heroic ambition.

Yang Chao also felt that he seemed to be a little slack, he was a little hesitant, he didn't have the sharpness he had at the beginning, he always felt that he was raising a hundred thousand soldiers, and he was going to conquer the Central Plains to restore the old land, but now he has a million The army, however, lingered for almost a year. If he had also sent his army north last year, the Manchu Qing would have fled back to Liaodong in despair by now.

Although there are various objective factors, such as financial chaos, economic contraction, sharp tax cuts, and other unfavorable factors, there is absolutely no way to solve them, but he even ordered the troops to do nothing for a year, just sit and watch Li Dingguo like this Heroes open and close.

"Uncle, um, look, my son kicked me again!"

Seeing the awkward atmosphere, Dong Xiaowan leaned over and rubbed Yang Chao's arm and said.

"What kind of kick? It's only been two months. If you can kick it, you'll be damned."

Yang Chao couldn't help laughing, Dong Xiaowan was pregnant, but the doctor believed it was only two months old.At the same time, Aimee Zhu was also pregnant, and Aimee Zhu was not so pretentious.

"Bah bah, what the hell are you talking about during the Chinese New Year!"

Mrs. Yang was wearing an official uniform, sitting majestically at the dining table, cursing angrily.

My father was not here, but packed up his bills and went to the living room to play mahjong with his uncle and other relatives. He didn't like the appearance of a table full of female relatives who were full of yin and yang.

Dong Xiaowan said angrily, "Just kicked!"

The old lady scolded: "If you kick it and don't sit still, don't move your tire."

Li Xiangjun bowed his head and didn't speak, but Chen Yuanyuan didn't care, he was whispering to the new concubine Du Hongying, while that wild girl Zheng Jiaomei ran out to set off fireworks.

"Okay, stop crying. Dad will take you to grandpa to ask for lucky money."

Yang Chao got up as he spoke, and ran to the living room with his daughter in his arms.

The Yang family is a bit small.

It’s still the old house, only dozens of houses. It used to be too empty, but now it can’t fit in at all. The concubine in the backyard has five rooms, and Yang Chao and his wife will take up six houses. Live in the front yard, but the guards at home can't live there.

The houses of the two families next door have already been bought, but they can't accommodate a thousand soldiers, and they have saved some salaries in the past few years. Yang Chao plans to build a new house, and the location is chosen at the foot of the Lion Mountain, facing the Yangtze River.

"Go and kowtow to grandpa, kowtow to uncle!"

Put her daughter in front of the card table of the old man of the Yang family, and smiled and urged her to ask for the lucky money. These old men were having fun, when suddenly a girl with braids and a red face ran over, staring at their cards with flickering eyes. The banknotes on the table, and then immediately knelt down and kowtowed.

"Happy New Year, grandpa."

After speaking, he raised his head and blinked his eyes.

Her grandfather put down the cards in his hand, chuckled twice, fumbled for a big red envelope, and gave it to the little girl.

The uncle also hurriedly paid for it, and everyone else was indispensable. To be honest, their purpose of coming here to play cards might be to send money.

After taking the money, the little girl didn't care about these old men anymore, and ran out immediately, calling "Aunt Zheng", and Zheng Jiaomei would basically coax her money away to buy a lot of firecrackers or snacks.

After watching the New Year's Eve all night, Yang Chao couldn't get up the next day. He was really lazy, lethargic, and gluttonous.

This situation made Yang Chao feel very emotional, this year can't be passed like this, Ruanrou Township is a tomb of heroes.

After the third year of junior high school, he immediately greeted a group of officials to the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion to discuss government affairs for a year.

Last year, Jiangnan's economy was not in a good mood, and it gradually stabilized in the second half of the year. Yang Chao has been careful not to make any fuss. Finally, after the summer and autumn grain, the tax revenue barely reached 500 million taels, which is 500 million less than the previous year. Take a breath.

Yang Chao didn't dare to expand like crazy this year, and he didn't dare to issue more bonds, so as not to impact the newly stabilized market.

"Let's issue 2000 million taels of bonds this year. The annual interest rate is set at [-], which should be attractive for people to hold."

"Last year's customs revenue was very strong, reaching 800 million taels. If we make persistent efforts this year, we should be able to break through 1000 million taels."

Last year, if it weren't for the strong customs, it would have been impossible to receive 500 taels of tax silver in the context of a sluggish internal economy, of which the customs tax was 550 million taels, an increase of 200% compared with previous years, but the regular tariff was huge. The rate of growth has increased from less than one million to more than [-] million, which is a remarkable achievement.

Changguan refers to the port taxation of domestic trade, such as foreign trade from Wusong Port to Quanzhou, from Guangzhou to Haizhou, etc. Daming has tens of thousands of miles of coastline, and most of its economic centers are near the sea. Shipping by sea is extremely convenient. If it is good, the regular tariff should far exceed the customs tax.Of course, if the low tax rate is implemented in domestic trade, it should be no problem to be equal to the customs tax, so Yang Chao expects to exceed 1000 million.

Of course, so many tariffs are mainly due to the development of the transportation industry after the sea ban was lifted, but it is also due to Nassau. He introduced the Dutch method of port management to Ming Dynasty, and trained as many as a thousand customs officers.

However, Nassau's promise to Yang Chao to run a university has been delayed for a year. It should have been completed last year, but the Dutch failed to find qualified university professors, which made Yang Chao quite angry. However, since they sent 30 Many cannon-casting craftsmen not only introduced the latest European cannon styles, but also innovated the method of casting cannons in Xinjiangkou. These craftsmen were also able to make firearms and introduced a batch of new-style firearms.

Ten cartographers were also sent, and several accountants who knew mathematics.There is not even one natural science scholar that Yang Chao is most eager to introduce.

Nassau explained the plight of the East India Company. At that time, most of the Western scholars were well-born and well-fed. , and only a fanatical priest who has a firm belief and dedicates himself to God.

Therefore, the East India Company was unable to recruit enough scholars, and the Jesuits were willing to send a group of knowledgeable priests, but Yang Chao only wanted pure scientists by name, not missionary priests, which made it very difficult for the Dutch.

Yang Chao has given Nassau an ultimatum, asking him to notify the East India Company that if Yang Chao does not meet the scientific personnel he wants before the end of next year, he will cut off the trade with the Dutch.

Nassau did not dare to neglect Yang Chao's ultimatum. Although the East India Company had conquered 500 million of the more than 400 million taels of tariffs last year, if it were placed in the West, it would be the God of Wealth, and it would not offend even if killed. But in the Eastern world , the ruler really dared to play like this.

In the past two years, the Japanese have begun to play quota trade, and the trade quota for the East India Company is 100 million taels of silver a year.Because the Zheng Group has taken more than 3000 million taels of silver from the Japanese in the past five years, Japan has already seen a silver crunch, and the deflation has kept the economy sluggish.No matter how stupid the Japanese are, they still know that it was caused by the outflow of silver. Zheng's trade volume cannot be restricted, so they can only attack the Dutch.

With the example of Japan, the Dutch are even more afraid to take risks on the Chinese. Nassau promised that he would use his contacts to invite some educated nobles to come to help form a university, but he said that it might not be possible. The size of a Dutch university, but it can guarantee the three subjects of astronomy and navigation, mathematical geometry and mining and metallurgy.

Yang Chao could only agree with this and accepted the bottom line.

"The education expenditure of 1000 million cannot be reduced or exempted. The military expenditure is at least 3000 million. If a large-scale offensive is to be launched, it will be at least 4000 million. If a long-term war such as the Northern Expedition is to be launched, it will be at least 5000 million taels. So our army still has no ability this year. Take a large-scale offensive. However, it is still possible to launch some local attacks. Our goal is to set the goal in Hubei, to attract Sun Kewang to compete with our army for territory, so that he has no time to fight among himself."

Yang Chao's idea was to send troops to attack Hubei, so that Sun Kewang would be forced to make a northern expedition, so he would not care about launching a civil war with Li Dingguo in the south.And Yang Chao didn't need to actually fight Hubei, so Sun Kewang could attack the Qing army in Hubei.

"This year we will vigorously encourage production. Encourage the silk weaving workshops in Suzhou. If necessary, the governor can still provide them with 1000 million taels of loans. Encourage large factories and workshops that recruit more than [-] workers. The governor personally sends Pass a plaque over, and give fame to a scholar, so you can see an official without paying homage!"

Although Yang Chao has never been very interested in kneeling, he did not abolish it rashly. This thing is a status symbol. Since it has been played for thousands of years, it has become a privilege. All power has value, so Yang Chao has always Seeing officials and not worshiping them is regarded as a kind of privilege decentralization, such as giving such privileges to some famous squires, so as to bring them closer to the government.

It is not Yang Chao's goal to really be against the entire gentry class, but he has been doing things that infringe on the rights and interests of the gentry class. The contradiction is naturally difficult to ease, and can only be alleviated step by step until the gentry class is completely eliminated. It will not be completely resolved until it is transformed into a new class, such as the merchant class and the industrial capitalist class.

Yang Chao especially encouraged the gentry in the countryside to raise silkworms and weave textiles. He appealed loudly in the newspapers to create a kind of good deed in which hiring workers is to feed the people. He strongly encouraged these gentry to turn their savings into investment and develop large-scale handicraft factories.

"Encourage the construction of roads and bridges. All good people who spend more than 3000 taels of silver will be given a plaque and be born as a scholar."

"The embankment from Suzhou to Songjiang should be completed this year. A new bill gate will be set up with a tax collection of 200 million taels."

Suzhou and Songjiang are connected by the Wusong River, but there has been no one to maintain it. Many river sections are inconvenient. Either the embankment collapsed badly, or the water flow was too shallow.Yang Chao gave Bai Lei 200 prisoners of labor to dredge the canals around Suzhou since last year, especially this Wusong River. All embankments that should be repaired should be repaired, and the river sections that should be dug deep should be dug deeper.After repairing, the transportation capacity can be increased by three times compared with the past.With the productivity of Suzhou and Songjiang, after this channel is dredged, it will be a piece of cake to collect [-] million taels of tax a year.

"The gold mine in Zhaoyuan, Shandong has heard that the problem of illegal mining is serious. This year, it will attract investment and open the mine, and the entire mining area will be closed. The businessmen who were originally 10 taels of silver are allowed to hire people to mine. 10 taels a year, no limit, should be I can charge around a million taels.”

Still money.

While discussing with the officials, Yang Chao studied ways to develop financial resources.

In conclusion, there are three work centers for this year: the first is to stabilize the economy and encourage production. The goal is to continue the previous economic growth momentum. This year’s tax revenue will reach 500 million taels; the second is education. Although the expenditure is tight, the 1000 million taels of education funding per year must not be missed at all; the third is to improve transportation.

Yang Chao has always believed that the government has three main responsibilities, one is to protect the people, one is transportation, and the other is education. Security protection is naturally a military issue, and transportation and education are the main responsibilities of the civilian government.So his administration is based on these two.

"This Zhang Guo is not bad, let him know."

After the policy plan was finalized, Yang Chao looked at the outstanding officials recommended by the civil servants.

This Wujiang county household division official named Zhang Guo was extremely eye-catching. Yang Chao planned to meet him and entrust him with important work.

(End of this chapter)