Then there were several meaningless greeting memorials from local officials. The main content was to first say that everything was fine thanks to the emperor's favor, then to start caring about the health of the Holy Emperor and the prince, and finally to offer some local specialties.
Nowadays, there are no officials who dare to blatantly bribe their father and son. The souvenirs offered are really souvenirs, whether they are clothes, fabrics, wood, toys, rocks, exotic animals, or even food and cakes. They are mainly to show their sincerity.
Most of these things are not used in the palace. They are basically given away after passing a glance, and it is impossible to put them in the mouth when eating. But people say that these are the things that the ministers save from the salary they receive in a certain year and month.
Use your money to buy things to honor your father.
Zhu Biao couldn't say anything. He could only tell him after reviewing it that he had already felt his feelings and there was no need to go all the way to send these in the future. However, he expected that they would not listen. Local officials should stay away from the center of the imperial court and would not seek help on their own.
If you have more opportunities to show off your performance, you will really be forgotten.
It’s easy to forget that it’s easy to say that there is nothing wrong with the emperor being a hundred or thousand miles away, and not all officials want to be officials in the capital. Officials in the capital are noble, but the water in the capital is deep, and several officials in the capital will drown every now and then.
The main reason is that I am worried that I will be framed and impeached for no reason, and I don’t have the opportunity to explain to my superiors immediately. If my superiors believe it, I will be stripped of my official uniform and imprisoned in Wusha for no reason, so I hope to leave a message in the heart of my superiors.
Name and surname, at least there will be a chance to defend myself in the future.
Then came Zhang Fan's memorial. As one of the team members that Zhu Biao specially cultivated, Zhang Fan, who came from the imperial examination, has performed very well in the assessment of the Ministry of Civil Affairs in the past two years.
Far.
In addition to greeting Zhu Biao's health, Zhang Fan mainly mentioned that some people not only cleared wasteland and farmed to support their families, but also raised official horses for the court, resulting in hardship, and asked the court if there could be some tax relief and good governance.
In addition to Zhang Fan's memorial, Zhu Biao also met with several memorials from local officials, all of which talked about the matter. This shows that this issue really needs to be resolved.
Unlike the ethnic minorities who all have soldiers and are good at raising horses, the development of cavalry has always been a hindrance to the development of the strength of the Central Plains Empire. Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, wars have continued, and the entire territory has not yet been recovered, so the court's demand for war horses is still huge.
The current policy of the imperial court is that the common people who raise mares must hand in a cub every year, and then the court will issue ponies to the common people, and the common people will return the adult war horses, and provide more sources for their own war horses by using the means of the common people.
.
Of course, people who cultivate war horses for the country can be exempted from certain taxes and corvees. Originally, the people were very willing. After all, the most leftovers from the Yuan Dynasty were horse farms and pastures in various places.
However, with the continuous relocation of people and land reclamation in recent years, most of the pastures have been converted into cultivated land, making it increasingly difficult to raise horses. In addition, due to the excellent results of the horse administration in the past few years, there are almost enough horses for use in the military.
, the treatment of raising horses has naturally been lowered.
"Summon officials from Taipu Temple and the Ministry of Household and Military Affairs."
"promise."
Zhang Fan said it implicitly, but according to Zhu Biao's understanding of his nature, he must have acted only when the situation was really unfavorable. In order to ensure the supply of horses, the court treated the people who kept official horses well but had higher requirements.
If there is no way to hand over suitable horses, then the people need to pay full compensation according to the standards stipulated by the court. A war horse can cost dozens of taels, which is far beyond the income level of the people. It is really more valuable than human life.
There was no way at the beginning. The territory was so vast and there were not enough cavalry troops to suppress Mongolia, Liaodong and the Southwest. Although this strategy was not nearly humane, it was indeed necessary at the time.
After two cups of tea, the Taipusi Shaoqing and the Minister of the Ministry of War led a group of subordinates to the Jinshen Hall. After seeing the ceremony, Zhu Biao was not in a hurry to ask questions. He just asked Liu Jin to present the memorial of Zhang Fan and others.
Let them take turns to look at it.
After they calmed down, they spoke: "The pastures have been converted into cultivated land. There should be a number of households in this department. Nowadays, the horse administration must have to be adjusted. Can Taipu Temple count how many war horses we have in the Ming Dynasty now?"
The Shaoqing of Taipu Temple bowed and responded: "Reporting to Your Highness, we have nearly 400,000 army horses in the border town of Ming Dynasty, about 180,000 garrison horses in Beijing, 50,000 post horses, and more than 200,000 underage horses in private breeding.
."
There are only 600,000 horses available now. If the horses that have not yet matured are included, the number of war horses will catch up with or even surpass the number of war horses at the peak of the Tang Dynasty.
In addition to the livestock raised by officials and people, this number was basically obtained by force. For example, Goryeo and the Korean Peninsula have been rich in horses since ancient times. In the Yuan Dynasty, they were one of the fourteen largest ranches, including Dawan.
Horses and many other valuable breeds.
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, Comrade Lao Zhu has requested horses from surrounding vassal states every now and then, ranging from a thousand to tens of thousands each time. During the Northern Expedition, he drove back many stallions from Mongolia. After surrendering in Mingxia, he donated ten horses in one breath.
With more than 10,000 war horses, Zhu Biao also obtained many high-quality stallions and foals from Goryeo and Liaodong through various trade methods.
War horses are consumables and the guarantee of the country's combat effectiveness. The reason why the Song Dynasty was weak is because they had enough war horses and did not have their own horse production areas. At their peak, there were only more than 200,000 war horses.
The Xixia Kingdom to the west directly occupies the important horse-producing land in the northwest, the Liao Kingdom and the Jin Kingdom to the north occupy the horse-producing land in Saibei and Guandong, and even Dali in the south occupies part of the horse-producing land in the southwest.
, the cavalry crushed the infantry, resulting in the Song Dynasty having to rely on the city walls to defend itself.
"Do you still have enough war horses for the frontier army?"
The Minister of War replied: "If there is no war, it will be enough. The wear and tear of war horses is very small on weekdays, but they will be worn out very quickly once a war breaks out."
Taipusi Shaoqing also answered: "At present, the pastures supervised by the government can continue to supply some war horses every year, but we must ensure that the pastures will not shrink."
Zhu Biao nodded slightly. Ma Zheng had to slow down this process. According to his plan, the places where troops will be used in the next few years will be Yunnan and Liaodong, and it is destined not to be a big battle. Taipu
The pastures in the temple's official camp are enough to supply damaged horses.
If we continue to urge and oppress the people to raise horses under the condition that it is increasingly difficult to find pasture fodder, it will undoubtedly force them to rebel. What's more, Zhu Biao does not know that compared with these difficulties, the black-hearted lower-level officials in Taipu Temple are the biggest disaster.
Horses raised by the common people and returned to the court naturally need to be inspected and accepted. This process naturally requires the lower-level officials to be responsible. If you pay filial piety, it will naturally pass. If not, you will have to suffer unreasonable difficulties and compensate for the loss of the horse.
.
Moreover, this policy was originally intended by the imperial court to raise horses for the common people who had the conditions and knew how to raise horses. The imperial court obtained horses to defend against foreigners, and the common people received tax exemptions. However, the officials below did not care so much. In order to seek credit and reward, they often forced the common people to raise horses if the conditions were not enough.
Many ordinary people's homes were ruined as a result.
Because of this, nearly 200 local Taipu Temple officials had been executed by the imperial court in the past two years. However, it was still difficult to change this trend. The lower-level officials were greedy and there was nothing they could do.
And the most important thing is the last secret letter sent jointly by Li Wenzhong, Xu Yungong and Chang Mao. The letter stated that the quality of the horses shipped from various places to supply the border troops was deteriorating year by year.
In the final analysis, it is still the disadvantage of the official operation. It lacks energy, is used to coping with things, has no enthusiasm, and the effect of raising horses is very poor. Just like Zhu Biao's intention to open the mine yesterday, when the official operation reaches a bottleneck, the best way is to open it up.
Private and private sectors to stimulate development.
During the Yuan Dynasty, Mongolia encircled the Central Plains for grazing, but the results were not very good. In fact, war horses still had to be supplied by grasslands such as Liaodong.
Zhu Biao's meaning was very clear, and the officials below quickly got into the mood and started discussing. The Ministry of War felt that it was very good now, and the horses were enough to make the world powerful. At least they should wait until Liaodong was recaptured and Yungui was pacified before changing strategies. Taipusi, the Ministry of Revenue, felt that
It's time to change.
The Minister of Household Affairs may have felt that people raising horses would lead to poor farming and tax revenue could not be collected, so he supported changing the court's horse policy. As for Taipu Temple, he simply wanted to follow the prince's wishes. Taipu Temple
After Qing Li Cunyi was imprisoned, people in Taipu Temple were in panic.