"The South Study Room has been decorated, and you can move in from tomorrow!" Zhu Yunxi's voice was as light as water, and his tone was calm, "But please remember that entering the South Study Room is both an honor and an honor.
A kind of responsibility. I have a word to encourage you, don’t forget your responsibility because of honor, let alone be in a high position and forget the poor and lowly people!”
"I will obey the Holy Instructions!" the ministers stood up at the same time and replied.
At this point, Zhu Yunxi had expressed everything he wanted to express in this imperial meeting. Hearing the high-pitched voices of his ministers, he felt heroic in his heart.
Li Jinglong guessed right, military affairs reform and official administration are both the first to bear the brunt. Military affairs reform is for the sake of military prosperity, while official administration is related to the hearts of the people of the world and the upcoming comprehensive New Deal.
Of the two, the most difficult is military reform.
The reason why Xu Huizu, a leading figure in the military, was allowed to enter the South Study Room was to send a message.
Rectifying military affairs does not mean suppressing warriors, but rather it is to better operate the Ming Dynasty's tiger and wolf divisions.
Since the Song Dynasty, China has gradually become less martial. The reasons are actually very complicated.
The most important thing is that the emperor and civil servants took the chaos of the feudal towns in the Tang Dynasty and the continuous wars in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms as warnings. They were afraid, so they weakened the military.
That's why there is a strange phenomenon. During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the north was powerful, and any armed force could defeat the Khitans. But in the Song Dynasty, the power of the whole country could only form an alliance with the Khitans, let alone the women of Baishan and Heishui.
Real person.
Yue Fei's tragedy is actually the most vivid manifestation of this thinking mode that weakens warriors.
Zhu Yunxi never thought about weakening the warriors, and even thought that the good men would be proud of fighting for the country.
When we privately agreed with Zhang Yan and others on this method of distributing military pay through banks, no one objected. Raising an army in this way is unheard of, and the amount of food and pay far exceeds that of previous dynasties. In the long run, wouldn’t it be a huge burden on the national treasury?
But if we don’t do this, it’s the generals and civilian officials who will get rich, and ordinary soldiers won’t even get military pay. How can we be proud of fighting for our country?
At the same time, under this model, useless armies that cannot fight can also be eliminated. The military household policy of the Ming Dynasty was definitely a bad government. Fathers and sons and brothers served as soldiers for generations, and in the end they became tenants of military commanders.
If there is a war, there is still no hope, and the court has a lot of money to spend, carefully calculate this account, is it a good deal?
The first step is to use banks to isolate the army from those who eat empty pay and drink soldiers' blood, and then reform the military household system and eliminate useless people. Then, come up with the details of the annual military budget expenditure. A transparent military affairs system will be more effective.
Guarantee the combat effectiveness of the Ming Dynasty's soldiers.
And with all this pressure, in the face of the huge burden of military expenditure, it is a matter of course that things that can provide the empire with real money and silver, but have been suppressed, flourish and develop, such as opening up seas for trade, mining and building roads, and even expansion.
thing.
Even the people will be freed from the traditional small farmer economy because of this change.
Progress in any era is due to demand. When there is demand, breakthroughs will be sought, and when breakthroughs are made, one will be strong. At that time, the Ming Dynasty truly had a hundred flowers blooming, and the sea embraced all rivers, which was the real change from the inside out.
Thinking of this uncontrollably in his heart, Zhu Yunxi would have really wanted to shout twice if there were not people around him.
"My beloved, is there anything else?" Zhu Yunxi smiled, "If nothing happens, it's already getting late, and the palace didn't prepare so much food!"
The emperor was in a good mood and rarely told jokes to his ministers.
When the ministers stood up and were about to bow and leave, Zhu Yunxi suddenly noticed that the consort Hu Guan was mumbling again and hesitated to speak.
"What does the prince consort have to say?" Zhu Yunxi asked.
"I don't have anything serious to do." Hu Guan stood up and said awkwardly.
"I don't have anything important to do right now, please tell me!" Zhu Yunxi joked.
"I am now ordered to manage Guanglu Temple!" Hu Guan spoke word by word under the curious eyes of everyone.
The rhythm of his speech was very strange. Even though he had gone through what he wanted to say in his head, he still spoke unfluently.
"I have seen the palace's expenditure list for this year calculated by the liquidation department!" Hu Guan continued, "Something is wrong!"
"What's wrong?" Zhu Yunxi asked.
"I have also seen the expenditure table in previous years. Every year, the palace's expenses are around 200,000 yuan, sometimes more." Hu Guan seemed to be speaking through gritted teeth, "But this year's expenditure table,
I read it several times and calculated that it is only around 70,000!"
Immediately, Zhang Yan and other ministers from the household department looked at each other thoughtfully.
"With such a big Forbidden City, so many people, and the royal family's reputation being involved, I am afraid that these 70,000..."
"Are you afraid that I won't have enough money?" Zhu Yunxi said with a smile.
"Yes!" A thin layer of cold sweat broke out on Hu Guan's forehead, "I am in charge of Guanglu Temple. There are several palaces in the palace waiting for repairs. This is the big head. After more than 70,000 silver coins are spent on these, what else can the construction and administration bureau have?
The Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau is stretched thin, and the utensils and clothing materials in the palace may not be able to keep up. In addition, during the New Year and festivals, the emperor wants to reward people, and foreign countries pay tribute in return, and..." As he said, Hu Guan came by accident.
One sentence, "I bet you are brave, if it can go up, even if you live at home, you have to prepare a surplus in money, just in case something happens!"
These words made all the ministers look at each other in awe, because Hu Guan really couldn't convey his meaning.
But Zhu Yunxi understood, and he couldn't help but sigh in his heart, "What an honest idiot! He is also an idiot who offends others."
Every year, Guanglu Temple will calculate the beginning of the royal year at the beginning of the year. The old man is probably one of the few truly frugal emperors in the past, so he strictly controls the palace expenses, but even so, he still spends about 200,000 yuan every year.
And Zhu Yunxi has issued an order to exempt the imperial dining room from purchasing rights, exempt the clothes supervisor from purchasing rights, and also exempt many royal supplies, pollen jewelry, satin furs, gold and silver jewelry, etc. After exempting various purchasing rights, it is equivalent to the palace.
Everything must be purchased from the market at a reasonable price.
As a result, the middlemen were gone, the people who helped him were gone, and the palace's expenses plummeted.
Hu Guan said these words because he was worried that the emperor's money would not be enough and that the palace would not be supplied with various supplies. But even if he went through his brain, he still pierced the window paper.
In the past, the palace had a lot of expenses because of tricks.
The most stupid thing is that he directly said that although the 70,000 silver coins were not enough to spend, it was not impossible to make do. He was the minister of Guanglu Temple, so he felt that he could list the places that needed to be spent with the emperor.
But he didn't, he felt it wasn't enough, but he didn't do it. Instead, he told the emperor about the difficulty.
The disadvantage of this is that you have cornered the emperor. If the emperor agrees, there will be no room for the palace budget for the coming year. If the emperor does not agree to increase the budget, what is the appropriate increase? Wouldn't that mean that the emperor would slap him in the face?
Smart people would tell the emperor privately, how about a compromise, one hundred and fifty thousand?
"In the next few days, some eunuchs and old palace servants will be laid off in the palace. I and the emperor's grandfather don't have many concubines, so I think this 70,000 silver coins will be enough!" Zhu Yunxi said with a smile, "But no.
You can rest assured to do your job!"
He is not a saint, but he knows that if he wants to create a truly peaceful world, the emperor must set an example for the world and know how to control his desires.
"Your Majesty!" Hu Guan didn't say anything, and Li Jinglong said sadly, "How can this happen? Seventy thousand silver is enough...how can you be so wronged! We have a great Ming Dynasty, and the royal family is the face of Ming Dynasty. You are so diligent and frugal,
It makes me feel so distressed!"
"The country will have more places to spend money in the future!" Zhu Yunxi said with a smile, "Seventy thousand is already a lot. Grandpa Huang often said that we two have nothing to wear but food to eat, and we have plenty of food and fish all day long. Besides, there are always tributes from various places.
I don’t lack anything at all.” He said and paused, “It’s easy to live a life from frugality to luxury, but it’s difficult to go from luxury to frugality in reverse! Increase revenue and reduce expenditure. In addition to increasing revenue, you also need to know how to reduce expenditure!”
"No way, no way!" Li Jinglong shook his head and said, "This is absolutely not possible! Your Majesty, you are the emperor and are rich all over the world..."
"Being rich all over the world does not mean that you can make random things!" Zhu Yunxi stopped him, "I have made my decision and there is no need to say more!"
The palace expenditure of 70,000 taels is indeed rare in history. So many people in the Forbidden City have money to eat, drink and buy food. But this number was not decided by a slap on the forehead, but after Zhu Yunxi thought carefully about it.
Historically, when Kang Mazi was in power and the San Francisco Rebellion occurred, the annual palace expenditure was this amount. Before the San Francisco Rebellion, the Qing Dynasty's palace expenditure was approximately 600,000 taels per year.
On the other hand, the Ming Dynasty, with the exception of the Hongwu Dynasty, maintained a shockingly high level every year. At its peak, it was as high as two million taels of silver per year.
During the Shunzhi period, there were still eunuchs in the Forbidden City during the Wanli period. Each year, they only spent 400,000 yuan on makeup and powder, and provided millions of dollars in food and clothing.
We must know that the highest expenditure of the Manchu Qing court was only over two million in the later period of Qianlong.
When Zhang Ju was in power during the Wanli Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty had the most abundant finances with 13 million in silver, so it had the money to help Goryeo fight the Japanese pirates.
But what about the Qianlong period? The number of national silver reserves was only a lot higher, right?
Reduce the palace's expenses and spend money wisely.
This is exactly what Zhu Yunxi said just now. Just because you are in a high position, you cannot forget your responsibilities, let alone ignore the difficulties in the world.