The atmosphere of today's imperial meeting was quite relaxed.
It had been very tense before. The armies of the two countries were fighting in Hebei and Shanxi. No one could predict the outcome of the war.
After all, the Jin soldiers defeated the Liao soldiers and fled, but these stunned Liao soldiers defeated the Song soldiers in the Northern Expedition with a small victory and a large number.
The fighting power was so terrifying that it cast a psychological shadow on Zhao, Song and Hanchen.
Even Zhu Guoxiang knows that Jin Bing was very powerful in history, and he is afraid that his son will capsize if he is not careful.
During today's meeting, Zhu Guoxiang even joked with the cabinet ministers. Li Bangyan took the opportunity to tell jokes about the Jin people, making Zhang Gen, who had always been serious about his words, laugh out loud.
After all the nonsense, the cabinet ministers spoke one after another.
The joyful atmosphere finally became solemn when Qian Chen, the Minister of Household Affairs, spoke: "Last year, we first fought against Xixia, which consumed a lot of food and grass. Then we recovered Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Guangxi, Fujian, and Jiangxi. Although a lot of money and food were confiscated, we reorganized the old army.
Dismissing soldiers also consumed a lot of money, and these provinces resumed production with light corvee and low taxes, and did not hand over much wealth this year."
"This year, we first fought against Zhong Xiang, and Hunan, Guangxi, and Jiangxi were all severely affected. Especially in Hunan, the population dropped sharply and people's livelihood was in decline. Not only could they not collect taxes, but they also had to divert money and grain from Sichuan to aid. Then came Hebei,
In the battle in Shanxi, a total of 170,000 soldiers and civilians were mobilized. People eat horse chews, and money and food are needed everywhere."
"The imperial court set up ordnance factories in various provinces, making tens of thousands of armors, countless swords, guns, swords and halberds. There were also warships, muskets, and artillery. All these were spent like water."
"If we win this war, we will also reward the soldiers and compensate the casualties."
"Had it not been for the additional issuance of tea banknotes and salt imports and the tariffs obtained from the Southeast City Shipping Department, the Ministry of Revenue would have long been out of money to supply the army."
"If there is going to be a war next year, we must levy more taxes. Or we may follow the example of the war in Sichuan and issue war bonds to rich households."
"You must know that more than half of the bonds issued in Sichuan have not been repaid so far. The Ministry of Household Affairs has always been in debt and has been struggling to make money. It has been issuing additional tea notes and salts for two years. If it is issued again next year, I am afraid that the tea banknotes will be
The merchants and salt merchants are complaining."
"In order to fight the war, all the water conservancy projects on the north bank of Jingjiang River have been stopped!"
The ministers in the cabinet looked at each other in confusion. They knew that the central government's finances were difficult. After all, they had been fighting wars and not raising taxes, but they did not expect that they were already in such embarrassment.
Meng Zhao asked: "How much money does the Ministry of Revenue have left?"
Qian Chen said: "There are still more than 60,000 silver dollars, 930,000 copper coins, and some food, cloth, wood and other items. After paying salaries to officials and giving out rewards during the New Year, these properties are not even enough to reward the soldiers.
Compensation.”
Qian Chen did not say how much he owed on war bonds.
That thing was issued twice, mostly in the form of food bonds, with the principal and interest estimated to be over one million bonds.
In other words, Ming Dynasty’s finances were negative at this time.
This is normal for a new regime. In history, when Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, he could no longer pay official salaries during the Northern Expedition. So he frantically gave land to officials, allowing them to farm the land and collect grain to offset their wages.
Zhu Di was even more powerful. He conquered Mongolia several times and was in financial distress. He directly distributed pepper to officials and asked them to sell pepper to make money.
This pepper was brought back by Zheng He from his voyages to the West. It was very valuable at first, but later became widespread. As a result, even if the officials received the pepper and sold it all, it would not be enough for their own wages. This is one of the reasons why the Manchu Dynasty opposed continuing to sail to the West.
one!
What's more, the Ming Dynasty under the rule of Zhu Guoxiang not only did not increase taxes to fight the war, but also imposed low taxes on newly recovered provinces.
After Zhu Guoxiang thought carefully, he said: "Whether we want to continue fighting next year or not, we have to discuss this with the prince before making a decision."
Zhang Gen nodded and said: "The Kingdom of Jin was defeated this year, and next year will be even more difficult than ours. We should work hard to regain our homeland in Shanxi. As for the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun, the land was almost empty when the Liao and Jin Dynasties fought. Even if the Kingdom of Jin migrated its population last year, it would not be possible in the short term.
Restore people's livelihood. Whether to recover the Sixteen Youyun Prefectures as soon as possible depends on the actual situation. If it is too difficult to fight, there is no need to recover it for the time being, because it will cost money and food to recover it, and you will have to pour money into it."
Zhu Guoxiang said: "Let's get the reward and pension money first."
"If it is urgently needed, the Coastal Shipping Department can still get a lot of money." Chen Dong said suddenly.
Zhu Guoxiang asked: "How was the investigation?"
Chen Dong said: "In all the municipal shipping departments, municipal shipping affairs, and municipal shipping offices in various places, from officials to officials, there is no one who is not corrupt. We have been investigating for three months and found several huge corruptions. But no matter how corrupt they are, the people appointed by the Ming Dynasty will be corrupt."
The officials have only been in office for less than a year, and the ones who are being investigated and dealt with are more old officials from the Shibo Yamen. If you want to confiscate more money by confiscating homes, just investigate the Shibo Department officials from the old Song Dynasty!"
Zhu Guoxiang shook his head: "Forget it about the officials of the old Song Dynasty, don't make people panic. They have already left the Shipping Department, and they were corrupt in the previous dynasty. What does it mean for the new dynasty to pursue the corruption of the previous dynasty?"
Chen Dong shut up immediately.
Zhu Guoxiang asked again: "Where is the coin foundry?"
Qian Chen said: "Let them step up the casting of 200,000 copper coins. Any more will be too much, unless large amounts of money are minted. As for silver coins, there are many silver pits in newly recovered Hunan and Fujian, and tens of thousands more silver coins can be minted.
come out."
Merchants and gentry were really good at hiding money. The Ming Dynasty minted more than three million taels of silver coins a year, which almost depleted the national treasury's silver reserves, but the silver coins circulating in the market were becoming increasingly scarce.
There are even merchants from Huainan and Zhejiang who transport goods to the Central Plains for sale. They would rather bear the extra transportation costs than transport the silver coins back to their hometowns and hide them in cellars.
The Ming Dynasty was too kind. In the Northern Song Dynasty, when gold, silver and copper coins were transported to different places, taxes were collected proportionally along the way. In order to enhance the circulation of coins, the Ming Dynasty canceled the cross-border tax on gold, silver and copper coins.
Zhu Guoxiang said: "Issue more bonds. Set up a bond issuance office in Yangzhou, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, Jiangzhou (Jiujiang), Luoyang, and Chengdu. The alum dealers must subscribe for the bonds, and the rest of the merchants are up to their own free will."
Alum was a specialty commodity in ancient times and required a franchise license issued by the government.
This thing has so many uses, it can be used to make cosmetics, paper, leather, dyeing, etc. It can even be used as a traditional Chinese medicine in itself.
Forcing alum monopolies to subscribe for national bonds will definitely make a lot of money.
Qian Chen reminded: "When bonds were issued in Sichuan, His Majesty was personally watching over them, and corruption and fraud still occurred. Now that there are six bond issuance offices across the country, the Supervisory Office will probably have to conduct thorough investigations on a regular basis!"
Chen Dong said: "The Inspectorate will closely monitor it."
Seeing the serious faces of the ministers, Qian Chen smiled and comforted him: "Don't worry, gentlemen. As long as there is no major war for one year, the national treasury revenue and expenditure will be balanced. If there is no major war for three years, the tax exemptions and exemptions for the various provinces in Xinfu will be over."
During this period, the people will gradually resume production, and the national treasury will become full. After all, the redundant soldiers, redundant officials, and redundant expenses of the previous dynasty no longer exist in the new dynasty."
Meng Zhao suddenly said: "According to the report from Honglu Temple, the envoy from Dali Kingdom has passed Jiangling and should be able to enter Beijing on New Year's Day."
"He's here again to beg for canonization. Just send him away casually," Zhang Gen said.
Zhai Ruwen also said: "The country of Dali is like a wolf, eyeing our border with the Ming Dynasty. We cannot ennoble its king."
The Kingdom of Dali is very interesting. Kings and powerful ministers of the past dynasties have requested to be canonized again and again. However, the emperors and ministers of the two Song Dynasties, except for Song Huizong's group, were not willing to be canonized to the Kingdom of Dali at other times.
In the Northern Song Dynasty alone, they refused to enshrine the Dali Kingdom eleven times. Each time they just accepted the tribute from the Dali Kingdom and then gave them gifts in return and made excuses to send them away.
The monarchs and ministers of both Song Dynasties still remembered that since the Nanzhao Kingdom, Dali had always wanted to invade and expand the land.
In other words, Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty liked the coming of all nations to the court, and for the first time, he was the only one to canonize Duan Yu.
The monarchs and ministers of Dali were keen to request canonization, which was nothing more than an unstable political power. They needed canonization from the Central Plains Dynasty to strengthen their legal authority and prevent other surnames from conspiring to rebel.
Last year, the small southeastern court was destroyed. When the Dali Kingdom got the news, they immediately sent people to Lizhou to request for canonization.
After the Ming Dynasty refused, this year it sent envoys with a large number of gifts to pay tribute.
Zhu Guoxiang said: "There is no need to reject it blindly. It is Dali that is afraid of Ming, not Ming who is afraid of Dali. You can discuss with the prince to see when he will send troops to regain Dali. If you have to wait a long time, it doesn't matter if you canonize it first. You can find an excuse later.
Just send troops. You can also trade with each other in Guangxi, encourage merchants to trade in Dali, and get more news in Dali."
Zhao Yu, the Minister of War, reminded: "There is a lot of miasma in Dali. If we want to attack Dali, we should train the southern troops to fight and not let the northerners go on an expedition."
"This is natural." Zhu Guoxiang nodded in agreement.
Zhang Gen and Zhai Ruwen looked at each other, feeling a little uncomfortable and worried.
Based on the prince's character and ambition, I am afraid that in the next twenty to thirty years, wars will inevitably occur in the north and south. The Jin Kingdom and Xixia will definitely be fought, and the Western Regions will most likely be targeted by the prince. Now the emperor has said that he will also fight the Dali Kingdom.
If you are not careful, it will turn into a militancy!
Xiao Chu looked happy. He supported the "Great Unification". Not only should Dali be recovered, but Jiaozhi should also be brought back.
Zhu Guoxiang added: "Based on the frontline battle reports, the Privy Council and the Ministry of War established rewards and pensions. The Ministry of Rites discussed the issue of knighthood. The meritorious service in Xixia, Southeast, and Hunan was also accumulated and knighted this time."
Meng Zhao asked: "What is the highest title?"
Zhu Guoxiang said: "The highest one can be given to a county prince. Bai Qi is already the Duke of Shu. Although he has killed Zhong Xiang this time, there is no need to raise the title for the time being. Just give him some other official positions and rewards. In the future, there will be many wars, and those who will be granted the title of county king
I’m afraid there are more than one or two.”
"Yes!" Meng Zhao was convinced.
The imperial meeting dispersed, and Zhang Gen walked out of the council hall.
The north wind blew snowflakes, and Zhang Gen couldn't help but shiver. He was almost seventy years old. Historically, he was demoted to Hunan, which caused the root cause of his illness. He should have died of illness several years ago.
Now, he has lived for several more years, but his health is deteriorating.
Walking to Zhai Ruwen, Zhang Gen said in a low voice: "Gong Xun, if I resign and return home, you should give more advice to the officials and His Highness. It is necessary to open up territories and expand the territory, but we must not resort to violence. Wait.
After destroying the Jin Kingdom, we should rest and recuperate for a few years, and we must not continue to conquer Xixia."
Zhai Ruwen was surprised and said: "Mr. Zhang is in good health, why do you want to resign?"
Zhang Gen said: "I know my own body. In the past six months, I have always felt lack of energy, and I'm afraid I won't live for a few more years. Now that I have recovered the two roads in Hebei, I have no regrets anymore, and I will retire with success."
"
Zhang Gen always felt that he was feared by the emperor, after all, his faction of civil servants was too powerful.
With his son-in-law Li Gang participating in politics in Hebei, his younger brother serving as chief envoy in Zhejiang, and his daughter being a princess, Zhang Gen believed that it was time to resign.
He really wanted to go back to his hometown. He hadn't visited his hometown in almost twenty years.
"Remember, admonish the prince!" Zhang Gen said.
Zhai Ruwen is not from Zhang Gen's faction, but if Zhang Gen resigns, Zhai Ruwen will definitely become the chief assistant of the Ming Dynasty.
Zhai Ruwen raised his hands and said, "This is what should be done. Please don't worry, Mr. Zhang!"
