The cabinet and ministers gathered together to hold a royal meeting.
Song Yingxing, who is 68 years old, is still in good spirits: "Including the silver taels deported overseas, the national annual income last year exceeded 40 million taels of silver. However, excluding local retention and royal withdrawals, the annual net loss was 830,000 taels. This is
This is the first time since the founding of the People’s Republic of China.”
As soon as this statement came out, nearly half of the ministers felt incredible. How could they still have a fiscal deficit with an annual income of 40 million?
Song Yingxing immediately explained the reason:
"First, the establishment of three major protective palaces in the north, the expansion of the army, the establishment of post stations, immigration, road construction and city construction require a large amount of materials to be transported northward..."
"The second is culture and education. There are more and more school-age children, and schools in various places are constantly expanding. Although local tax collections have been increased, many provinces still have insufficient expenditures, and the central court needs to allocate money..."
"Third, overseas development. The number of overseas territories is increasing day by day, and it is necessary to establish governors, dispatch officials, and deploy troops to garrison. Except for Luzon and Malacca, the rest of the overseas territories are still losing money, and Palembang barely balances its books..."
"Fourth, conquer Burma. We have been preparing for the war for several years. We have temporarily organized inspection divisions, cast artillery, built fleets, and dispatched supplies... These all cost money. From the beginning of preparations to the withdrawal of troops, it cost more than 3 million taels. This is still
At the beginning, in the newly occupied lands, officials, troops and immigrants had to be dispatched, official roads were laid, inns were built, and cities were built..."
To put it bluntly, education funding and expansion expenditure have swallowed up too much finance.
Zhao Han said with a smile: "Don't worry, gentlemen. The three major protective palaces are newly opened. Money is needed for everything, so there will naturally be a lot of expenses. Overseas territories, don't look at the current losses, isn't Luzon a good example? Again
With a few more years of development, overseas territories can be profitable. As for the newly acquired land in the southwest, we should be able to recover our capital in twenty years, and in twenty years we can send money to the court."
Dynasties in the past have opened up new territories and expanded their territory. In addition to regaining core territories, border areas have been losing money most of the time.
Because you have to maintain the bureaucracy and military system, and you have to build infrastructure (post stations, post roads, cities). After Zhu Di's death in the Ming Dynasty, the borders shrank across the board. The main reason was that they could not withstand financial pressure and had nothing to do with the military.
.
As for those overseas territories, why did the European colonists make money but the Datong court had to lose money for several years?
First, China's colonial policy did not exploit the indigenous people harshly, but it was quite shameful. It even continued to open schools and used the power of culture and education to try to absorb and assimilate the local indigenous people.
Second, Europe's newly occupied colonies also had to lose money at the beginning. Take the Dutch occupation of Tainan as an example. Even if they squeezed the indigenous people to death, they still suffered losses for six years. In the end, with the help of the Han people,
It took a lot of strength to turn a loss into a profit (this so-called profit does not include the initial military expenditure and infrastructure expenditure).
"Your Majesty," Fei Chun put forward his suggestion, "the six provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangxi, and Sichuan have a large surplus of tax revenue every year. I think some of it should be deducted from the savings to assist the poor.
We cannot expect all of the provinces to be allocated by the central court."
This is equivalent to letting the east support the west and the south support the north.
It's not a new thing, it was often done in the Ming Dynasty, but it was very arbitrary and no system was really formed.
In the Qing Dynasty in history, this model formed a system.
The finances of the Qing Dynasty were highly centralized and did not even distinguish between central and local governments, so the annual revenue was very high.
In the Qing Dynasty, all the taxes that the prefectures and counties could retain were not even enough to cover their own expenses. The chief secretary collected all the money and grain. The provinces reported the situation to the central government, and the central government asked the emperor to make a decision and allocate the provinces' finances. Part of it was retained in the provinces.
(retained), and part of it was deported (transported) outside the province. Those transported money and grains were sent to the central government and were called Beijing Rates, and those that supported other provinces were called Consolidated Rates.
This approach can ensure that the Qing government has money, and the provincial government offices also have money. However, the states, prefectures and counties are extremely poor. If the local officials do not exploit the people, let alone how much they are greedy, even there will be a gap in normal expenses.
This forced state and county officials to levy exorbitant taxes and levy taxes crazily, peeling off the skin of the people layer by layer.
By the mid-to-late Qing Dynasty, almost all of the most lucrative state and county positions were within Sichuan. Because the official taxes in other provinces were too heavy, state and county officials could not extract much. However, Sichuan was emptied out in the late Ming Dynasty and used low tax policies to encourage immigrants.
, has never been adjusted again. As a result, the people of Sichuan are relatively wealthy, and they can save all their energy to plunder, and the exorbitant taxes and miscellaneous taxes are several times, even ten times, dozens of times the regular taxes!
When the people of Sichuan first immigrated, they first had to unite to fight against wild beasts and natural disasters. Later, they had to work together to deal with corrupt officials and warlords. During more than two hundred years of struggle, the world's largest social organization Ge Laohui was formed.
By the time of the Republic of China, 70% of Sichuan people were Pao Ge, and even the young girls and wives in the countryside were very likely to be members of the Ge Laohui.
The current finances of the new Datong Dynasty are directly handed over to the central government in proportion, while remaining in proportion to the local governments. As a result, the rich provinces have a large surplus, but the poor provinces cannot make ends meet, so the central government has to continuously invest money to relieve the poor provinces.
"Who is opposed to this method?" Zhao Han asked.
No one spoke.
Many cabinet and ministry officials come from these six provinces. But they dare not fight for the interests of their hometowns, because if one of them is not good, it will easily be self-defeating.
The lessons learned from the Ming Dynasty left everyone with lingering fears.
It is said that there was a group of Jiangnan gentry in the Ming Dynasty. Officials and businessmen colluded to control policies, harming the people in the north and making Jiangnan pay less taxes. But the real situation is that the taxes in Jiangnan were the heaviest. The direct inducement for Zhang Juzheng's reform was that the people in Jiangnan could not bear it.
Already.
If these officials in front of me dare to talk nonsense, what if the emperor is forced to impose heavy taxes in the south?
Zhao Han glanced at the ministers: "Since no one objects, then you can go down and discuss how much should be allocated to the tax reserves of these six provinces every year."
"Yes!" Song Yingxing accepted the order on behalf of the ministers.
When the matter was over, Lu Xiangsheng suddenly raised his hand and said: "Your Majesty, in all the border areas in the north and south, except for Liaodong, I recommend that there be no more wars within five years. Even if we fight, we cannot fight big wars."
"I know." Zhao Han expressed understanding.
The expansion has been too rapid in the past few years. Not only has military expenditures and related investments increased sharply, but the newly occupied territory has also been unstable. Now that it is expanding its territory in the southwest, the subsequent financial pressure will be extremely great, and various hidden dangers must be slowly eliminated.
Only Liaodong still had to fight, because the remaining forces of the Manchu Qing Dynasty were still entrenched there with Ninggu Pagoda as the center. Hu Dinggui was busy increasing the population of Jianzhou, reclaiming wasteland, and building post stations. He was never able to free his hands. The next one or two
We will plan to regain Ninggu Pagoda next year.
Except that he did not build military households and military camps, and did not allow the prince to guard the border, Zhao Han's expansion ideas were similar to Zhu Yuanzhang's.
It means to relocate troops and people, enrich the population in the border areas, lay a firm foundation, and push it out step by step.
The Ming Dynasty's border strategy failed, and the military household system and the prince's defense of the border were at fault.
The prince's defense of the border triggered the Battle of Jingnan. After Zhu Di ascended the throne, he had to wipe Zhu Yuanzhang's butt and bring back all the princes from the border. In addition, the Battle of Jingnan drew away the border troops. After all this back and forth, the court was short of money and food.
Due to the shortage of soldiers, the Horqin Grassland was directly given to the Duoyan Three Guards. The military guard system was gradually decaying in Zhu Di's later years, and many border guard posts were no longer self-sufficient. Their finances were ruined!
Zhao Han humbly learned from the good policies of the Ming Dynasty. Zhao Han carefully circumvented the pitfalls that the Ming Dynasty had encountered.
Zhao Han said: "The three northern governors, as well as the Pingnan Military and Civilian Division, will definitely not be able to engage in war in the short term. But the Ruan family in Annan and the Tatars in Ninggu Pagoda must be wiped out within three years! There are also
, the king of Korea is becoming more and more rude and must send an envoy to reprimand him!"
King Li Hao of Korea was like a grandson at first, and even sent his younger sister, who was less than ten years old, to Nanjing.
Not many years later, Li Hao suddenly became energetic.
First, without external pressure, North Korea has ushered in a ten-year period of peaceful development.
Second, North Korea's reforms were very successful, the treasury was getting fuller, and the army was getting better and better. Historically, Li Hao's ideas were even more powerful. Because he had money, he clamored to expand his army by 100,000 and wanted to fight Shunzhi.
Although it was not that outrageous at this time, Li Hao, who had soldiers and money, sent envoys to Nanjing many times to ask China to return Baozhou territory.
Baozhou is located south of the Yalu River, on the other side of the river from Dandong.
In order to prevent the Qing Dynasty from moving south, North Korea agreed to temporarily lend it to the Datong Army for garrison, but how could Zhao Han spit it out? Many years later, China had sent officials to directly establish Baoxian County in Baozhou, and there were several Korean people under its rule.
Ten thousand.
Seeing that Baozhou was becoming more and more prosperous, Li Hao couldn't help it. He punished the envoys every year and asked for their return. Occasionally, he even kidnapped Korean border residents, so he almost didn't directly use the army.
These unusual actions have already attracted the attention of Nanjing.
Zhao Han sent a spy two years ago to investigate and easily obtained information. North Korea was really playing too much.
The Royal Camp Guards in Hanyang (Seoul) have been expanded from one guard to three guards, and their strength has reached 21,000. The Imperial Guards have been expanded from 600 to 1,500, half of which are cavalry. In addition, new troops have been formed.
The total number of firearms battalions, muskets, and artillery troops is 1,800.
These are only the capital troops in North Korea, and local troops are also increasing. What exactly does Li Hao want to do?
Starting last year, Zhao Han was forced to make adjustments and increase the number of Datong troops stationed in Baozhou to 1,000. At the same time, a bastion structure was built on the four corners of the original city wall to prevent the Korean king from having a seizure at any time.
It is impossible to fight, and China will not take the initiative to attack.
North Korea, a land as big as the palm of a hand, has been ravaged by the Qing Dynasty and Japan for decades. The population has dropped sharply and people's livelihood has been in decline. Even if the reform is successful, how much money can be saved? Such crazy military expansion is difficult to maintain for a long time. Either
The finances are in ruins, or military benefits are declining.
As long as China waits quietly for a few years, all the dividends of North Korea's reform will be lost in the military.
In addition, Kim Yu, the "Zhang Juzheng of North Korea" who presided over the reform, is already 75 years old. Although he succeeded in "dividing a small family into an equal share" in North Korea, it also popularized Chinese currency in North Korea, and the North Korean gentry secretly accumulated strength. Once Kim
If Yu died, the Korean gentry would fight back, and the achievements of reform would be in vain.
Slowly delaying time, Zhao Han has already killed Huang Taiji and Dorgon, the most capable governor of Batavia, the king of Burma, King Talung, and Gushi Khan who occupied Qinghai and Tibet.
, is about to be tortured to death, not to mention a mere Jin Yu.
It is the most economical and trouble-free to kill the enemy heroes and then make military plans.
If King Thalong was still alive, Zhao Han would never send troops to Burma, because the difficulty would inevitably increase exponentially.
As long as Gushi Khan was alive, Zhao Han would not send troops to Qinghai and Tibet. Whenever the old man died, Zhao Han would take action.
After the ministers dispersed, Zhao Han said: "Call the envoys from all countries in turn."