Chapter 281 Return of the Japanese Empire (11) Royal Fleet?
The battle against Pusan was temporarily terminated due to the arrival of a heavy rain. Tomorrow and the Japanese army, as well as the North Korean army gathering from all directions, had to stop their respective operations and wait for the rain to pass and the sky to clear.
On this day, the Jinhai County Government, which was temporarily requisitioned by the Ming army, had already hung up the large book of the Jinhai County Office. The great scholar of the Wenhua Palace of the Ming Dynasty, the Ping Japanese Manager, and the Marquis of Nanning, Gao Pingshi, were convening a small-scale meeting of senior generals.
Military discussion.
Before the meeting started, the messenger reported that an angel had arrived, and Gao Pingshi went out to receive the order. Only then did he know that the emperor was interested in the captured Japanese ships.
However, the emperor's imperial edict did not actually mention this. He simply encouraged Gao pragmatically on his achievements since his expedition. Of course, he also said a few words that he would be rewarded heavily after the war.
These were all official words. When Gao Pragmatic saw that there was no actual content in the imperial edict, he knew that after receiving the edict, he would have to invite the ministers who delivered the edict to talk about it in order to find out what the emperor wanted to tell him.
It was a coincidence that the angel who came here was an old acquaintance, a real old acquaintance—Liu Ping, the nephew of Huang Mengyu, the eunuch of the former Chief of Ceremonies.
Liu Ping and Gao Jingshi knew each other very early. They met when Gao Jingshi went to Datong to "Guanzheng Datong Firearms" on behalf of Zhu Yijun when he was the prince's accompaniment. At that time, Huang Mengyu was the imperial envoy guarding the local eunuch of Datong, while Liu Ping was the eunuch of Datong.
One of the three eunuchs serving as prison guards.
When Gao pragmatic first met him, he was praised by Gao pragmatic for his incomparable familiarity with the military firearms production and supervision system of the government at that time [see Chapter 126 of Volume 1 of this book: Observing government by decree (VI)], so later Gao pragmatic
After helping Huang Mengyu get promoted, he also took great care of Liu Ping.
Later, Huang Mengyu became a "retired veteran cadre", and Liu Ping had no direct supporter in the palace. Although Chen Ju was good to him, after all, Chen Ju also had a lot of godsons behind him, so this was a bit of a care.
He couldn't take it anymore, so Liu Ping got closer and closer to Gao Pragmatic - of course, this was actually Huang Mengyu's explanation.
Gao Pragmatic was very nostalgic, and he did help a lot, so Liu Ping was quickly transferred back to the palace from the imperial envoy to guard the local eunuch in Fujian, and became the eunuch Bingbi, the eunuch of the ceremony. He ranked last among the four Bingbi - Gao Ping was the last in the past few years.
After the victory of Pragmatic Fa Yuan, he was promoted one more place and is now ranked third among the four great eunuchs.
But the position of eunuch Bingbi... How should I put it, is somewhat like the situation in the cabinet, that is, the chief eunuch Bingbi at the top of the list has the real power - that is, he also serves as the governor of the East Factory. The following three are like the top eunuchs.
As an assistant, the real power is far behind. Unless the emperor favors this person, he is at best one of the successors to the chief eunuch Bingbi. The real power depends on what job he gets.
Liu Ping's mission is good or bad. He is mainly responsible for the guard-related matters in the palace - note that he is only in charge of the palace. He is not responsible for the military affairs of the capital outside the palace. In the inner court system
, The military affairs of the capital, that is, the affairs of the capital camp, are the scope of authority of the eunuch in charge of the imperial horse supervisor.
[Note: However, due to the highly pragmatic military reform of the Beijing camp, the Beijing camp has been split into the Imperial Guard and the Production and Construction Corps. Therefore, the powers of the eunuchs in charge of the royal horse supervisor have actually been severely weakened, leaving almost only the most basic ones.
Supervisory function. Of course, the power of internal officials can be large or small. In the final analysis, it depends on how much power the emperor delegates.]
Since he was an old acquaintance and one of his own, Gao Pragmatic didn't beat around the bush too much and asked directly about the inside story of the matter. Liu Ping was naturally forthright and quickly explained the discussions in the court, including the emperor's meeting with several trusted ministers in the palace.
The discussions were all discussed with Gao Pragmatic.
It turned out that although the emperor's words in the court were all from his heart, he had not finished his words, and he still had some thoughts that he had not expressed in public. This time, Liu Ping was asked to bring the words to Gao Pangshi.
Let's get straight to the point. To put it simply, the emperor also began to covet the sea trade business. The fleet he wanted to build was actually not the "court's fleet", but the "emperor's fleet".
This matter can be understood this way: just like the money of the imperial court is actually divided into two parts: the household department and the internal funds. The court's money is in the household department, and the emperor's money is in the internal funds.
Most people in later generations probably thought that the emperor's internal funds were simply allocated a certain percentage from the Ministry of Household Affairs, just like the royal income of many European countries. In fact, this is completely wrong. It is completely different here.
To clarify this issue, we need to first understand what parts of Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue are composed of. Because the composition of Ming Dynasty's fiscal revenue is very complicated, we need to understand it separately.
First of all, we need to know what the taxation process of the Ming Dynasty was like. There were treasuries in various places in the Ming Dynasty to store the taxes collected, such as grain, goods or silver, etc. After taxes were collected in various places, they needed to be collected from the two capitals.
When transporting large warehouses, it is necessary to distinguish which warehouses are state-owned property and which are the emperor's private warehouses.
The warehouses under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Revenue are mainly the treasury, mainly the Ether Warehouse, the Zuoshunmen, the east of Baoshanmen and the various warehouses of Nancheng Porcelain. This is the area under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Revenue.
The Twelve Prisons of the Inner Palace, the Sacrifice, Kagura Hall, Taichang Temple, Guanglu Temple, Imperial College, Changying Treasury of Taipu Temple and Jieshen Treasury of the Ministry of Works each have their own warehouses, all of which are
The Ministry of Household Affairs originally had no jurisdiction over the departmental funds of these departments.
However, Gao Pragmatism is very unlucky. After his initial reform of the large household department, except for the 12 supervisors of the inner government, all the independent financial rights of the other yamen were returned to the household department. Therefore, there are currently only yamen with independent financial rights.
There are twelve inner palace guards left.
The financial power of the twelve eunuchs in the inner palace is high and pragmatic. After all, even he can't reach out casually when it comes to matters in the palace - how to reach out? The queen, the imperial concubine, do you need to report to someone in advance for approval in advance to make a bellyband?
It's so outrageous.
Therefore, the Ministry of Household Affairs belongs to the country’s external treasury, which is commonly known as the treasury.
"Internal money" refers to the "ten treasuries of the inner palace" set up by the Ming Dynasty. This is the private property of the emperor. Some people also call it the "twelve treasury". The difference is whether there is a distinction between "treasure treasury" and "treasury for supply".
"It's a matter of counting them as inner warehouses. In short, if you don't get entangled, you can call these twelve warehouses collectively "internal warehouses".
"History of the Ming Dynasty" records: "There are ten treasuries in the inner palace: the inner transport treasury, which stores satin, gold, silver, precious jade, horns, and feathers. The gold, flowers and silver are the largest, with an annual income of one million taels. It is a wonder. The Guangji treasury stores sulfur."
, Saltpeter. A-shaped warehouse stores cloth and pigments. B-shaped warehouse stores fat jackets, combat shoes, and sergeant fur hats. C-shaped warehouse stores cotton, silk, and D-shaped warehouse. It stores copper and iron, animal skins, and hematoxylin.
Store armored weapons. Store stolen goods and fines, store confiscated official property. Guanghui store, store money and banknotes. Guangying store, store silk, gauze, damask, brocade, and silk.
The six treasury all belong to the Ministry of Household Affairs, but the Yi-zi treasury belongs to the Ministry of War, the Wu treasury, Guangji, and Guangying treasury belong to the Ministry of Works. There is also the Tiantai treasury, also known as the key treasury, which stores the keys of each government office and also stores money for use.
The warehouse is used to store japonica rice, cooked rice and offerings. The above are collectively called the inner warehouse."
You can simply know the names of other warehouses, but only the inner transport warehouse needs to be understood in detail. The inner transport warehouse is responsible for storing gold and silver. It has the highest status among the twelve warehouses in the inner palace, and is also the most commonly referred to as the "inner warehouse" by later generations.
” or “internal funds”. In the Ming Dynasty, whenever officials asked for “distribution of internal funds”, they were referring to this “internal transport warehouse”.
However, there is something to note here. The "History of the Ming Dynasty" says something like "Liuku belongs to the Ministry of Husbandry, Yiziku belongs to the Ministry of War, Shuzi, Guangji, and Guangyingku belong to the Ministry of Industry." Don't think that these prefectures
The treasury is really under the management of the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Industry.
The inner treasury can still only be used and managed by the emperor himself. The Ministry of Revenue can send officials to inspect and register the income and expenditure of the inner treasury, but has no authority to manage it.
The Ministry of Works is only responsible for inspecting things entering the inner treasury. Historical records say, "Between Hongwu and Yongle, and in various prefectures and counties, the Ministry of Works inspects the items before sending them to the inner treasury." The Accounts Department here is only responsible for keeping accounts.
For example, Liu Zui once mentioned in his memorial: "Money belongs to the internal government, and although the ministers are not responsible for the gains and losses." In other words, even the "consultant", the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, cannot fully understand the income and expenditure of the internal government.
How many actual accounts were there? The actual management staff was composed entirely of eunuchs.
According to historical records, the inner treasury contains "one eunuch who holds the seal, a close attendant, a secretary, more than ten eunuchs, a chief secretary, a writing staff, and dozens of supervisors".
"The inner treasury is held in the palm of the hand, and all gold, silver and other treasures are under its control."
The main source of internal funds is "gold flower silver". The so-called "gold flower silver" refers to the specific name of silver that appeared after the tax reform of the Ming Dynasty.
It is generally believed that this thing was originally used to solve the problem of the loss of rice in the salary of civil and military officials who moved from Nanjing to Beijing, so some officials suggested that in Jiangxi, Nanjing, Zhejiang and other places, the rice could be converted into silk cloth, silver and other items.
, sent to the capital as salary, this is the origin of "gold flowers and silver".
At that time, silver was not the legal currency of the Ming Dynasty, so the daily salary was divided into rice and grain. Later, the grain was converted into grain, and "gold flower silver" was used as salary to be paid to the military officials in Beijing. All other excess was included in the internal transportation treasury, becoming
An important source of income for the emperor.
But there is a question here. Why should "Jiangxi, Nanjing, Zhejiang and other places fold rice into silk cloth, silver and other items"? With the "spirit" of the Ming Dynasty civil servants, your emperor took a farm tax as a golden flower for no reason
Silver, is that what they can agree to? Of course not.
In fact, legally speaking, this money really belongs to the emperor personally, because the so-called "rice harvested in Xi, Nanjing, Zhejiang and other places" here does not come from ordinary people's fields, but from the fields of emperors and emperors.
Now you know why the emperors of the Ming Dynasty after moving the capital to Beijing also built more and more imperial palaces around the capital? Yes, it was because the "rice" from the imperial palaces could be turned into gold and silver to add to the internal coffers. As the emperor's
private property.
But there is another problem here. Gao Pragmatic persuaded Zhu Yijun and asked him to gradually release the imperial estates in the capital and even the entire Beizhili area to the people through installment redemption. In this way, the emperor's internal money income was reduced.
Now, almost all the internal funds for gold and silver come from the old Huangtian fields in and around Nanzhili - these fields have not changed.
There are two main reasons why there has been no change: first, the area around Southern Zhili is not the home ground of the Shi School, and Gao Shishi has no interest in coming in for the time being, lest the imperial village does not return to the common people after being given away, but is instead completely occupied by Nanjing nobles and Jiangsu and Zhejiang plutocrats.
Occupied;
Secondly, most of the imperial mansions here were built by Zhu Yuanzhang at that time, and they were the true "ancestral properties" of the emperor. Gao Pragmatic did not want to "violate the ancestral system" at all levels for a while.
Of course, Zhu Yijun did not live entirely on this "ancestral property". Gao Jingshi also generated income for the emperor at the commercial level. For example, the Liaonan Salt Farm was restructured by Gao Jingjing during the Jin Fuhai Military Preparation Period.
He bought shares with the salt farm land, and from then on he just paid dividends on the salt farm, leaving all management to Gao Pragmatic.
This dividend was not much at the beginning, but it has snowballed over the years and has become larger and larger. Five years ago, the emperor could receive more than 800,000 taels of silver in dividends from the Liaonan Saltworks a year, and this year it is expected to exceed one million.
two.,
Doesn’t it seem scary? No, in fact, this amount is normal, because you must know that the Zhang family in Puzhou, which controls the output of the Qiba Changlu Salt Farm, has an annual income of more than three million taels.
Of course, there is the issue of "exclusive areas" here. That is to say, before the restructuring of the Liaonan Saltworks, all major regions in the country had "exclusive areas", each with its own exclusive area.
The main reason why the Liaonan Salt Farm was not boycotted by the government and the opposition was that it agreed not to sell in other companies' exclusive sales areas. Therefore, the Liaonan Salt Farm has always made money by opening new trade zones - except for the long-standing Liaodong, all the salt farms now make money.
The Jurchen tribes, Eastern Mongolia, North Korea and Japan are all the places where salt is sold in Liaonan.
In fact, North Korea and Japan have been able to boil their own sea salt for a long time, but how can this technological level compare with the low cost and high output of Jinghua's brine sun salt? Of course, they were soon beaten and abandoned, and were occupied by the Liaonan Saltworks
major market share.
By the way, after that, both North Korea and Japan increased the tariffs on "Ming Salt", which was one of the reasons why Gao Pragmatic had to surrender to them. It was also the reason why Gao Pragmatic controlled the Korean court and Zhu Yijun seemed to have never heard of it.
one.
How dare you, North Korea, infringe on my internal funds and income? If I don’t give you some color to see, I’m afraid you don’t know how big my dyeing workshop is!
Of course, in addition to the Liaonan Salt Farm, Gao Pragmatic also gave the emperor some dividends in other "cooperation projects". Compared with the original Beizhili Huangzhuang, this business was definitely a good deal for the emperor.
However, Zhu Yijun will still be short of money, because after the victory in the war against the Yuan Dynasty a few years ago, Gao Pragmatic fulfilled one of his previous promises and helped the emperor rebuild the three main halls with funds from Jinghua Infrastructure under his name.
However, Gao Pragmatic is only responsible for repairing the house and does not care about the decoration. As we all know, if the land price is not included, the construction cost alone is actually not high. Really "high-end" decoration is a bottomless pit.
Now that the three main halls have been repaired, decoration must of course be carried out. As the holy king who rejuvenated the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Wanli had to renovate the three main halls even to commemorate the success of conquering the Yuan Dynasty. He must have the style of the supreme in the world. Moreover,
Now that the three main halls have been renovated, does the harem, including Ciqing Palace and Cining Palace, also need to be renovated?
What can you do if you don’t have money? So you have to make money - the fastest way to make money seems to be sea trade... The emperor himself built the fleet that went to the Western Ocean back then, but now the Tian family also builds a fleet of their own.
Divide?
----------
Thanks to book friend "Cao Mianzi" for your reward and support, thank you!
Thanks to book friends "Laoxi from Altay", "Book Friends 20220303150356351", "Cao Mianzi", and "klauszx" for their monthly ticket support, thank you!