People always stare at the benefits they get, but how much they spend for these benefits is consciously or unintentionally ignored. Xu Ping repeatedly mentioned the cost of doing things, and every time he dropped it, it surprised the court officials. There is nothing he can do. In addition to local regular taxes, transfer, discount, purchase, science and technology, and even heavy duty in front of the official yamen are actually part of the cost of the regular tax. And it is these facts that make the people afraid to talk about it.

The ministers here have all been people-friendly officials in prefectures and counties. As soon as Xu Ping explained it clearly, they knew what was going on. Only Zhao Zhen was still extremely surprised, constantly weighing what Xu Ping said, and suddenly amazement.

Xu Ping said: "Your Majesty, what I just said is the cost of collecting money, but in fact, the cost of spending money is equally amazing."

Zhao Zhenqi said: "I have passed the hands of countless people to collect money. I can understand the cost of money. What is the cost for spending money?"

Xu Ping glanced at the Privy Councilor Zhang Shixun and said, "Take the military expenditures spent in the border states as an example. For example, the imperial court spent 1 million guan to buy grain. If the Kaifeng Prefecture colored rice is one stone, it will take one million guan. In fact, when it comes to war, take the use of military troops in Shaanxi during the Zhenmiao as an example. Five guans of fine rice cannot be bought 5 guan. If we consider the peacetime period, the price of rice in Shaanxi is only half that of Kaifeng Prefecture, and four guans of a stone of rice is more than the cost of trading. When using military troops, you can imagine where the military expenditure is spent."

Zhang Shixun said in a deep voice: "Although this is good, it is a helpless move. Everything is expensive in wartime, and the price of rice is naturally much more expensive than usual. The army should not be short of food in one day, and it is worth spending more money."

"Although Shuxiang is good, every time he uses military service, the court has worked hard for the money, and it is not easy to say he is not careful. But in the end, he still has to stop the army and seek peace because the cost is too high. This is not a solution. Recently, the three departments checked their accounts over the years and found that Zhenmiao used military troops to Shaanxi. The border areas collected military rations for five jin and one stone, but it was not colored rice. At that time, the price of grain in Kaifeng Prefecture was still the same as in previous years. It was still a single jin and one stone. If one counted as one million jin, it would be wasted more than four million jin. The military soldiers in the border areas did not eat good rice. More than four million jin. If the Bridge and Dao Department organized people to transport them there, even if they collected trash from Jiangnan and Zhejiang, the freight would definitely not be so much. In this way, spending money along the border would be too high."

Zhang Shixun said: "With that being said, it is just that the dynasty's military ration transports and harvests are in its own way, and it is difficult to change."

The court's fiscal revenue is now guaranteed, and there will be no serious financial difficulties when fighting in the northwest. However, what Xu Ping feared the most was that no matter how much money the court invested, it would not be able to transform into the combat power of the frontline soldiers. In the end, the money was spent, but the matter was not done. At this point, the war became a bottomless pit, and if you don't want to seek peace, you have to make peace.

Food is the most conspicuous large-scale strategic material, and its efficiency is also low to this level. Other war materials can be imagined. Fighting war means fighting money and food, which is true, but money and food must be used where it should be used.

The imperial guards have no logistics organization, which is decided by the military system. During wartime, temporary transportation envoys will be established, and the logistics system they rely on is actually the original administrative system of local prefectures and counties. The more they are in the densely populated mainland, the more effective this organizational system is. The wider and sparsely populated border areas, the more they are stretched. If they attack the border, they will be at a loss. Whether in the northwest or Hebei, the war relies heavily on merchants to transport logistics. What else can I do if I don’t do this?

Merchants who traffic in the army can only play a role in adding icing on the cake. If they rely entirely on them, no amount of money will be enough for them to make. Moreover, in order to obtain the maximum profit and push up the price of goods, they will always maintain a shortage of materials on the front line. The final result of the war was to enrich a large number of merchants who followed the army, hollowed out the national treasury and had to stop the war. After the truce, the bureaucrats felt cowardly and killed another group of merchants to vent their anger. The next time the war started, the same story would be repeated.

Xu Ping was really afraid that the same situation would occur after the Northwest fight with Dangxiang. He could not control the imperial guards, but he could allow the Sansi to smooth the logistics system to Shaanxi. As for the war, he would ensure that there would be a steady stream of war materials to Guanzhong. As for how to go to the front line in the end, it was the affairs of all the commanders.

Seeing Zhang Shixun silent, Zhao Zhen said: "If it is as Xu Ping said, most of the money is spent on useless things, it is really worth it. The Privy Council should come up with a solution to transport money and goods to the border, with the minimum fee."

Zhang Shixun said: "Your Majesty said very well, but there are few solutions. I have tried to use the wing army to transport grain to Shaanxi before. It is calculated that it is more expensive than hiring merchants to transport grain. It is best if this is the only way."

Xu Ping said: "What the Secretary Shu said was that the cost of transporting tea with the Xiang army wasted in the past, plus the money for making ships, and the shipwrecks were wasted on the road. All kinds of things are worse than hiring merchants to transport tea. However, this is the cost of peacetime. Once wartime comes, it is not the price. The Xiang army transports food and tea, whether in wartime or peacetime, they spend that money, but the merchants will raise the price. The more urgent the court urges the price, the higher the price they ask for."

"Businessmen seek profit, so naturally this is true. But wars are not fought every year. There is no need to transport so much food in peace. Do you have to raise so many soldiers in vain? If you recruit civilians, you might as well buy them from merchants."

What Zhang Shixun said was another point in the military system, that is, no matter whether the imperial guards were in or out, they had to go in or out. When fighting, they had to increase their troops. However, the increased troops would not be retired after the war was over, but would have eaten military rations for life. In this case, raising professional grain transport troops was naturally not cost-effective. Over the years, in order to reduce the number of troops, non-combatants were basically laid off. Officials were not fools, their decisions were coordinated with the military system.

Xu Ping looked at Zhang Shixun, then Zhao Zhen, looked at several ministers around him, and said in a deep voice: "After all, there are many places to use troops when the war begins, and we have to increase troops. If we do not increase troops, everything will be inconvenient and will consume a lot of money."

Zhang Shixun said in a deep voice: "However, it is easy to increase troops, but it is difficult to lay off troops, and it is difficult to achieve both worlds."

This is where the recruitment system is troublesome. In peacetime, it is actually less expensive than conscription, but when it comes to war, it encounters great difficulties. If a large-scale increase in troops, where the excess personnel will go after the war will become a problem. Under the recruitment system, joining the army is the job of these people. After so many people have been killed, those who have served in the army will face turmoil. If the increase in troops is not made, the demand during wartime will be solved by commercial behavior, and the money will be astronomical and no government can withstand it.

Not to mention this era, Xu Ping remembers the world's largest country in his previous life. When he was roughly peaceful, he could defeat the entire country's finances by fighting a small country for a few years. However, during the world war, they used the conscription system. I don't know how large the scale of the war was, but there were not so many strange things.

The recruitment system itself is not a problem, but it can only be combined with business during wars, which becomes a big problem. The only thing that can be fought in this system is that the only thing that can be done in a colonial and plundering war is that normal wars between countries are actually not something that a normal regime can bear. The cost of war under this system is really too high.
Chapter completed!